


Adventures With Cable

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [18]
Category: Avengers, Marvel Comics, X-Men, Young Avengers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-15 16:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15416622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: Everyone on the X-men gets a shot at time travel- or dimension hopping - or both! And K has been with the team long enough to have gotten married and had two kids with Wolverine. So it's long overdue.Cable appears like some amazing bodysliding messiah to whisk K and Kate into an alternate timeline where darkness and bad things rule - and one of those bad things is named ... K.The girls will work hard with whatever allies they can sweet talk to save this reality's Wolverine and set things right in a world overrun by sentinels.





	1. K Needs To Have A Different Timeline Experience Too

Kate had  _finally_ gotten Krissy to go back to sleep after she woke up in the middle of the night for no reason whatsoever. The little elfling had just decided that she wanted to play, and nothing could convince her that sleep was so, so much better.

So, Kate had finally given up and tickled Krissy into submission, playing with her toys and making silly faces until she fell asleep at last. But by that time, it was time for Kate to actually get some work done and take an early-morning call from halfway around the world for the international film rights to Kamala's movie.

She basically made it through the whole thing on the last of her coffee, and then she had an archery lesson.

And from there, she had  _meant_ to meet up with Kurt and get some snuggles — and relieve him of babysitting so he could run his drama rehearsal — but … she definitely didn't make it that far. She ended up falling asleep in the teacher's lounge, and by the time she woke up again, it was dark outside and well past dinner. Kurt had decided not to wake her and had taken Krissy to the rehearsal instead — and it was only when K came in to check that Kate was dead to the world asleep enough to miss eating entirely that Kate even woke up.

She blinked blearily up at her friend, and then at the window, bolting upright when she saw how dark it was. "Oh man. What time is it?" she blurted out, scrambling to untangle herself from the blanket she hadn't even noticed Kurt put around her while she was asleep because she had been so deep in it.

"I'd guess about half past whenever you were supposed to be elsewhere," K replied. "You missed food though."

Kate let out a groan of frustration before she dropped her head back onto the couch. Her phone said that it was almost Krissy's bedtime all over again, which meant she'd missed most of the day already. "I don't know whether to kiss him for being sweet or get mad at him for letting me sleep through the  _whole day_ ," she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before she took K's hand to use as leverage to get to her feet.

"Always kiss first. And last."

"Good policy," Kate couldn't help but laugh. She shook her head as she got to work folding up the blanket and grabbing the quiver she still had from her lessons. "Well, at least I'm awake in time for bedtime," she joked. "When did this become my life? We  _just_ got her sleeping through the night."

"Timing is everything, my dear."

"Of course," Kate said, shaking her head, before she draped an arm around K's shoulders. "Alright. I should probably go apologize to the Southern woman making dinner downstairs for missing out on her cooking. Be my shield so I don't die?" she teased.

"I'm not sure what I can do about that for you, considering that she wants to stuff me like a turkey, but… I'll try."

Kate couldn't help but smirk at that as the two women hit the hallway, though they didn't get any further before there was a bright blue light, and to their surprise, Cable stepped into the hallway, looking perfectly serious.

"Oh, hey," Kate said, blinking away her surprise and the last of the sleep from her eyes. "What's up, Cable?"

"I need a hand," he said simply. "Rescuing Logan."

That definitely had K's attention, and she straightened up a bit. "What do you need?"

"It'll be easier if I show you," he said, thumbing over his shoulder at the blue light behind him.

"Shouldn't we just… go upstairs or wherever he's hopelessly pinned down by small children?" K had to ask.

Cable smirked. "Not that kind of trouble, and not that Logan," he said. "I found a few when I was looking for the one from this timeline when everyone thought he was dead. And this one could use a jailbreak."

"I'm game," Kate said quickly. "It'd be nice to return the favor." She gave K a significant look. "Besides, I'm not letting one of my best friends time travel or dimension jump or whatever without me. It was  _not fun_  when me and Kurt did it."

"It's probably a good idea for you to come anyway, Kate," Cable admitted, frowning Kate's way. "The K in this dimension isn't on the side of the angels, so you'd have a hard time talking to anyone without an advocate." He directed that last part at K, though K already suspected that was why he had decided to show up where she was  _with_ someone instead of getting her alone to ask for help. "Like I said, it'll be easier to show you."

"On one condition — you have to bring us back as close to right now as possible. I have a newborn, you know," K said, holding up one finger his way. "And on another note, I have to ask — are all Summerses this dramatic?"

Cable smirked K's way for a second. "No, some of us are downright showy," he said before he simply stepped into the blue light for them to follow him.

Kate glanced toward K and then gestured ahead with both hands. "Well, shall we follow the bouncing dramatic Summers?" she asked with a grin.

"The  _showy_  one, you mean," K said before she simply fell into step with Cable. "And only because he admitted he needed my help. Out loud. With a witness."

"I know; it must be terrible," Kate agreed, though her smirk died a bit once they had come through the other side to the dimension Cable had been talking about.

It wasn't like the last alternate reality Kate had been to, with demons running amok, but the pattern of destruction was pretty similar, the marks of a full-out war easy enough to see. Sentinel parts, blaster marks, partially collapsed buildings … the works.

"What happened here?" Kate asked, wide-eyed as she took in the destruction around them.

"Government-sanctioned genocide," Cable said frankly, though he didn't turn her way as he led the two women through the ruined streets. "Not too far off from what your world was considering not too long ago. And this is the end result." He shook his head and then motioned for them to get moving. "Can't stay out in the open for too long if you want to avoid the Sentinels. Come on."

"And you couldn't have just dropped us off where we were out of sight because…" Kate said, then frowned, looking around the damage and wondering if she actually did want the answer to that question.

Cable shot her a dry look worthy of his genetics before he shouldered his way into what looked at first like a half-collapsed building, but there was a trap door underneath one of the overturned tables. The two X-Men followed him down, though they didn't quite get all the way down the underground tunnel before a familiar voice broke the silence:

"What the hell, Nate?"

That was  _definitely_ Scott's voice, and it had both girls frowning, especially since they couldn't see where Scott was. "Why is he hiding?" K asked Cable quietly. "Just because you're taller or …"

Cable shook his head with a little frown but didn't answer her directly. Instead, he simply called out, "They're with me. You know I wouldn't bring anyone here that's not on our side."

For a moment, there was a long pause before Scott stepped out of the shadows, glaring and still holding what looked like a blaster of some kind, though it wasn't pointed at the women — for the moment.

But that wasn't what had K and Kate's attention. Instead, both of them couldn't help but stare at the fact that Scott not only didn't have the red glasses in this dimension — he flat out didn't have his eyes. Not the real ones, anyway. Instead, he was glaring at them with two bionic eyes a lot like Cables, but with a blue glow rather than yellow.

"What happened, brown eyes? And what the hell are you doing with a  _gun_?" K asked, one hand resting over her heart as she stared at him openly. None of her usual teasing tone was in her voice — instead replaced with actual concern that this Scott clearly wasn't used to hearing from her.

He frowned her way for a moment, and it was clear he and Cable were having a quick, telepathic conversation before he let out a breath that sounded like pure disbelief.

"It's a long story," Scott said her way at last, holstering the blaster — which was a good sign, at least.

"Well this reality sucks already," K said, crossing her arms. "I don't like it. Who do I need to take out to fix this?" She addressed that question more to Cable.

"That would be you," Scott said, gesturing for the three of them to follow him a little further down without expanding on his statement.

She paused for a moment but then nodded. "Fine. Where can I find myself to take her out?"

"That's the question of the day," Scott said. "Right now, she's probably where Logan is."

"Sounds right to me," she said quietly. "That's where I should be right now, after all."

Scott raised an eyebrow over his shoulder at her but didn't comment, though Cable was sure to let her know,  _You're the one who captured him, so don't expect a warm reception._

 _I have mine at home, so I'll endeavor not to take it too personally,_ she replied quickly.  _I know how to catch him, after all._

The four of them made their way into what was clearly a makeshift War Room, where a few other scattered X-Men were also gathered. Kurt looked downright murderous before he'd even seen K — he was obviously still mad over his best friend being taken, so it must have been fresh. Not that Ororo looked too pleased either. Or Kitty. Or Jean.

But when Kurt saw K behind the two Summers men, he positively growled before he teleported to her and slammed her against the wall before anyone else could react. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I'm here to help you get him back," K replied, her eyes closed as she waited for the headache to pass. He'd slammed her hard enough to rattle something loose. "And I'm not who you think I am."

"Kurt, it's okay, we're dimension hoppers," Kate said in a soothing tone.

Kurt barely frowned Kate's way for an instant before he put his focus back on K. "I don't believe you," he told her in a low growl.

"I couldn't tell," K said calmly before she held up her left hand. "In our timeline, you were best man. And you're godfather to my daughter. I'm sure Kate has pictures, and I am not reaching for my pockets while you're in a mood." She was sure to keep both hands where Kurt could see them as she held his gaze.

"I so do," Kate said with a smile as Kurt simply took a step back from K, looking floored.

"I think Nate brought me here because he knows you have to fight fire with fire — and who better to get into my head, than me?" K was trying to be reasonable with them, she was. But she really wasn't in the mood to be jerked around like that. Not only was her protective drive high this soon after James, but her temper was unusually short too. Which really wasn't helping them to warm up. Not when she looked like she wanted to throttle someone.

"And your wife, of course," Kurt said with a frown, obviously trying to wrap his head around K not being a threat.

K paused for just a moment, her eyebrows scraping her hairline for an instant before she burst out laughing. "Sweetcheeks, please …  _please_ show him your pictures," she laughed, though when Kurt glared harder at her, she held up both hands. "I can't help it. That's fantastically off base."

Kate was shaking her head to herself before she finally found the pictures she was looking for and all but shoved her phone at Kurt. "Yeah, no, she's one of my best friends, but thanks for playing, sweetheart," she said sweetly as Kurt stared dumbfounded at the picture of Logan and K kissing, in full wedding attire. Logan was clearly clutching her close and Kurt was in the background clearly gleeful over the whole thing.

K looked over his shoulder and smirked at the photo. "I was already a few months along with our little girl. You had  _fits_ at me until we let  _you_ plan the wedding out."

Kurt was still staring at the picture when Kitty broke in. "Wait, there's  _seriously_ a world where those two are…  _ewwwww_."

"Yeah, you don't care overly much for me anyhow," K said her way. "But considering who  _you_ are dating ... " K shook her head. "No judgement, pretty Kitty." She looked back at Kurt. " _Years_. They've been together for years and haven't been married. You should start giving her a hard time now before she disappears into space to pick up … space…. pirate... type people."

"I'm not dating anyone," Kitty grumbled under her breath.

Kurt glanced up at Kitty for a moment and couldn't help but smirk at the look on her face before he handed Kate back her phone and let his shoulders drop the slightest bit. "You have to understand; we've only just learned where they're keeping him."

"Great. So …you said the me here is evil. Let me go take my own head off. It'll be fun," K said.

"You won't be able to get in under the radar," Scott told her. "There are too many Sentinels, and they're looking for shapeshifters — any mutant signs that register will set off the alarms."

"Show me what you have, and I'll bet that I can," K said. "Something I have that your world's K doesn't is a few years training with Logan and a newborn at home. I killed Ronan the Accuser the last time someone stood in between me and my daughter, and I am  _firmly_ in angry mother bear mode. I can do it."

"I'm not sending you in after him alone; I don't care who you're married to in your timeline or reality or whatever," Scott said. "I'm not going to risk that."

K looked up at him for a long moment, just studying him ... and his bionic eyes … and the treble slash mark scars across his face that showed exactly how it had come to pass. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want  _two_  of you running around out here if it goes south," he told her frankly.

"That's not going to be how this ends," K told him. "I want to fix this and get back to my babies and husband."

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it," Scott said with his arms crossed. "You've been in this reality for a few minutes. Someone from  _my_ team is going with you. That's not a request."

"Okay. But trust me or don't, it doesn't matter. I was brought here to help you, and damnit, I'm going to do that whether you like it or not. Like I said — I want to get back to  _my_  husband and our little ones. Besides," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly, "I  _know_ how painful it is for you to be separated from Logan for too long. So that has to be fixed right the hell now."

Scott gave her a dry look, though Jean didn't bother to hide the snicker.  _So he's like that in yours too?_ she projected out, the amusement obvious in her tone.

 _Honey, you have no idea_ , K projected right back.  _He gets downright_ anxious  _if he thinks anyone wants to share time. He's overly crabby with Tony Stark too._

Jean smirked her way before Kurt cut in. "Then if we are picking teams, I'll be going after Logan," he said, not really leaving any room for any other option.

K turned his way and began shaking her head. "No. Absolutely not. She'll have something set up to keep you from teleporting out," she said.

"Besides, I'm not just here to be a pretty face and picture supplier," Kate put in.

K snapped her fingers and pointed at Kate. "Right. And  _she's_ not a mutant. So."

Scott raised an eyebrow their way. "Really?"

"What? It's easier to think that she's my wife than to believe she's human? Oh my gosh. Brown eyes. So … one sided," K said, crossing her arms.

Kate grinned and leaned over to kiss K's cheek. "But I'm so irresistible."

"You  _are_. America is going to have  _fits_ when she hears about this, I swear."

"You can't tell her — she'll  _never_ let it die."

"Oh, I am so telling her," K chuckled. "She  _needs_ to know that your husband in this … whatever thought we were married. That's just … oh. So perfect."

"Ooh, Jean, you should be jealous. She's cute," Kitty teased.

K frowned, looked between them and fell apart laughing all over again. "Oh… that's even  _better_."

Kate was shaking her head at her before she finally let the X-Men in on the joke. "I'm married to Kurt," she explained, holding up her own left hand this time. "He's totally smitten with me, isn't that right,  _liebchen_?" she couldn't help but tease Kurt's way.

"Don't wait around on this one,  _V_ _ö_ _gelchen,_ " K said. "I think they're a little slow."

Kate just laughed as she started to pull up the most recent pictures on her phone of her with Kurt and Krissy — just to further blow their minds — though while she was distracted, Kurt was staring at her in surprise… and smirking slightly as he watched her.

Finally, Kate looked up again and then grinned when she saw that Kurt was smiling at her. "Yes, I know. I'm gorgeous. And our little girl has my looks, too," she said, sliding the phone over to Kurt again.

Of course, with something like that, it wasn't just Kurt that was interested in the picture. Ororo positively beamed at the picture, and Jean made a noise that said she was clearly dying of cute. And Kurt looked like he wasn't going to come down from the high any time soon.

"Okay, so we proved we're not our evil doppelgangers, but come on … what do you have in mind?" K asked, heading over to Scott. "I know you have half a dozen plans lined up."

Scott nodded slowly as he thought it over. "Most of which were for my team, obviously."

"Of course. Do you know  _why_ she took him?" K asked. "That might help matters."

Scott's shoulders dropped a bit, and he nodded. "They want him for the same reasons they want her. And more. He knows the team; he could wipe us out," he said.

"Alright," K said slowly. "So … is she in control of herself, or is someone pulling the strings?"

"As far as we can tell, she doesn't have much of a consciousness of her own," Jean said.

"That complicates things," K said, her arms crossed as she rested her weight on one foot. "But … she's still tapping into her creativity?"

"Very much," Kitty grumbled.

"Well that is not good," K said, frowning deeper. "What's your worst case outcome of this?"

Scott looked toward Jean, who nodded slowly. "I can handle both of them," she said. "If I have to. But it would be a permanent solution."

"My question is  _how_ are these people in their heads?" K asked. "Is this a Weapon X type thing or centralized government? Private option? Who's the one making them do … everything?"

"It's all government-sanctioned," Scott told her with a glare.

"So … that needs to stop too," K said, nodding, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Okay. Sure. I am just a little … okay. I'm not advocating keeping your K alive," she said slowly. "But … if you did, and you could evict whatever controls they had on her … she'd have a lot of intel you can  _use_."

"Let's start with getting Logan out," Kurt said.

"You're not going to get him out without dealing with her," K said. "I can promise you that. They'll have her keeping an eye on things, since he's that high value to them. And she'll have a plan in place for whoever's most likely to go in after him. So who were you planning to send?"

Scott leaned back as he studied her for a long moment. "That's the subject of the debate," he said. "Kitty and I would be the best team, but everyone here wants to go."

She waved her hand toward Kurt. "I didn't ask who wanted to go, I asked who you were actually planning to send."

"With you two on the team now? Kitty," Scott said. "I'd go myself too, but that would put us at four, and I'm wary of too many people on this team. Especially when there's every possibility, like you said, that it's a trap."

"Do you have maps of where you're going?" K asked.

Scott tipped his head toward Nate, and he laid out a few plans. "Of course."

K went toward Nate and started to look over the blueprints as he told her what kind of defenses they knew were there, and she dove into it. The two of them put their heads together, with K asking little things on occasion about the tech involved, and if they'd developed inhibitor fields yet or if it was only collars al while making little marks on the blueprints of spots she found useful.

Scott was frowning over some of her questions, too, and flat out shook his head when she mentioned the inhibitor field. "You can't get captured with an idea like that in your head," he told her seriously. "That would cripple our team and wipe us out."

"I'm not going to get captured, Scotty."

"Don't call me that."

K paused and nodded her head. "Sorry. Force of habit. I'm sure 'my hero' would skeeve you out then, hmm?"

"'Scott' is fine," he said shortly.

"Yeah, that's just … never gonna happen," she replied dismissively, putting more marks on the plans. "But you know … a nickname that  _isn't_ your codename would cut back on audio triggers on alarms, right?" She looked up at him with a perfectly serious expression.

Scott watched her for a long time before he finally nodded. "Fine."

K let out a breath. She honestly felt badly about how Scott had been treated here, but she was trying to focus on putting it  _right_. "Alright. The Sentinels. How advanced are they? Have you tried any armor piercing EMP's to take them out — short of dropping a nuke, that is?"

"We haven't had much success beyond, well..." He gestured at his own face. "We don't have access to more advanced EMP's down here, either."

K put her hands on her hips and frowned outright at the plans. "Where the hell is Tony when I need him?" Though as soon as the words left her mouth she straightened up and turned to Kate pointing a finger her way. "If you tell him I said anything even remotely like that, I will murder you in your sleep."

"Tell you what. You don't tell America about our relationship, and I won't tell Tony you  _needed_ him."

K tipped her chin up at that. "I will  _have_ to risk it."

"He's never gonna let you live it down," Kate sang out happily her way.

"Might be worth it, since America won't let it die ever either." She tapped her fingers on her hips as she turned to look at the gathered X-Men. "Kitty. How much have you done with computers and tech here? If I give you something, can you replicate it?"

"I've done a few things with the Sentinels we've captured," she said.

"Good. Kate, how many EMP arrows do you have on you?" K asked with a growing look of trouble. "Even if we can't use them on the Sentinels, they'll cripple the facility — and, if we're lucky, whatever's controlling the mutants they're using."

"Oh, three or four," Kate said with a grin. "I could spare one or two for the resident geek squad."

"One," K said. "If it does work for Sentinels, we might want to save it for a big nasty one. But … I think if it's a mind control tech? I wanna shoot someone in the face. Or … jam it in her throat. Something understated, of course."

"I'm sure we can find someone for you to shoot," Kate said with a troublemaking smile. "You're just lucky I came from a showcase with my class on trick arrows. I've got  _plenty_ of toys."

"Excellent, because I left my guns at home. Someone was being  _showy._ " K held up her hand toward Cable. "I know, I know. Can't risk tech being taken. Don't start with me."

"This is why she adopts space boys," Kate said in a stage whisper to Kurt, who looked honestly entertained with both of them. "They're all the same."

"Look," K said, mostly to Scott, though she was looking over the group. "There will probably be specific traps for Kurt and Kitty both, since they'd be key to getting rid of whatever tech they're using on your Logan. Not to mention the fact that they're too close to him and too emotional  _not_ to try it."

"Loyal," Kurt corrected her.

"Yes," K said, "Fiercely so. But it's something that  _I_ would use against you if I was on the other side." She turned to Scott. "Are you entirely sure that it's really Logan that they wanted and not someone … I dunno. More versatile?"

"I know any one of us here would give them the advantage they need," Scott said with a frown.

K shook her head at him. "Not what I'm saying," K said as gently as she could. "I'm asking if they aren't using him for bait instead. Yes, he'd be wickedly useful to hunt people down to kill them — but also redundant if they already have  _me_."

"Except that he knows all of us  _personally_ ," Scott said. "Intimately."

She nodded at that. "I know, but that's really more of situation for them to tap in with some powerful telepath and learn what they can. If they've got no need, use, or love of mutants, they won't keep a bunch of them for the same purposes. They'd be after someone more powerful." She let her shoulders drop slightly before she projected out to Jean.  _Tell your sweet husband to quit thinking with his heart for five seconds._

Cable smirked hard as Jean shook her head.  _You have to know that every member of our team that's been captured by them has ended up dead. Scott's the exception_ —  _and now, so is Logan._

_Because they want someone bigger._

_I'm not going,_ Jean assured her.

_Which is a shame. You could decimate them if you wanted to. I haven't met you in our timeline, but I've read the files._

_But haven't seen it,_ Jean said, her smirk dropping.

_I have. But not from you._

Jean frowned her way for a long time before she simply leaned back and shook her head.  _I could go, but only as a last resort,_ she said.

 _That's what I'm suggesting,_ K replied.  _This isn't going to work with a single strike team. That would be handing it to them. They expect you to send in your best options so they can pick them up. They won't expect a second and third assault line._

_Then you're expecting the first one to get picked up._

K nodded at that.  _You've been playing it close to the vest. Cautious. And it's been the right move_ —  _until now. Hit them hard. Then hit them again. Don't let them get the chance to breathe. Especially K. If you let her back off and regroup, she'll only think up something nastier._

At that, Scott broke into the conversation, through Jean.  _If that's the case, let me be the first wave. If we already know they'll catch the first team, we need you and Kate on the second or third. You're the ones with the EMP and the know-how to fight our K._

 _I can tell you how,_ K offered.

But Scott shook his head lightly.  _I'm not risking them getting their hands on another K. I already told you that. You're in the second or third wave._

_I'm not going to lie: I don't want you going in alone. And honestly, I was hoping to slip into the ductwork while there was a distraction._

_I don't want anyone going in with me,_ Scott said.

 _In tandem,_ she clarified.  _Not_ with  _you. Different approach. Different entrance. Clear the path for the second and third wave. I'd just want access to your bomb making materials._

Scott frowned her way for a long moment.  _I'm taking a big chance trusting you with this._

 _Scott, if it makes you feel better, have your wife go digging around. I won't even put up a fight. Nate brought me here while you were snuggled up with my very small newborn son. Who you are godfather to. I would_ never  _betray you. At all._

Jean couldn't help but smirk at that, especially when she went ahead and took a peek and couldn't help but project the image in K's mind to Scott — of Scott curled up with James.

Scott looked downright shocked for a long moment before he finally let out a breath. "Alright. We'll go in three waves. K and I will be on the first wave. Storm, I want you to take Kitty and Nate. Jean, you'll be with Kurt and Kate to hit them hard." He smirked her way and added just to Jean,  _I know you'll tear the place down._

 _To get to you? Of course,_ she said with a smirk.


	2. Not The Same K

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... yeah, this one is going to come at you pretty fast. For reasons.

Jean was sitting with K sifting through her mind as a precautionary measure, mostly to ease the minds of the X-Men that K wasn't going to turn on them somehow. K had her hands and feet tied, which was the only way Scott would agree to let her that close to Jean, but while Jean went through K's mind, Kate wasn't really part of anything — she was just twirling an arrow between her fingers and watching the group.

She was pretty sure this was a younger group of X-Men, though it was hard to tell when they all looked battle-worn. Besides Scott's obvious eye problem, there were plenty of other scars to go around the group. When Kitty had her sleeves pushed up looking over the EMP, Kate could see the criss-cross pattern of debris from an explosion that must have caught her before she could think to phase. And Kurt had a triangular sort of divot out of one ear.

But when she looked his way, she also noticed something else — the way his tail was swaying easily as he watched her, a little smile on his face that she recognized only too well.

She couldn't help but smile his way. "Oh, so you're a flirt in  _every_ dimension. That's good to know."

His grin widened as he watched her. "And do you make a habit of flitting between dimensions,  _fraulein_?"

"Believe it or not, I did it more  _before_ I married you and became an X-Man," she said with a little laugh as she came over to sit beside him, since he was so obviously curious.

"A woman of adventure," he said, smiling at her still with his tail swaying.

"Exactly." She grinned at him and pointed at him to show that he'd gotten the point. "My best friend can open holes in the barriers between dimensions, and I spent months going from one reality to the next with my team — back when I was, like, twenty-one and a Young Avenger."

"An Avenger?" Kurt repeated with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, that too," she said with a smirk. "Actually, my code name's Hawkeye — did you have my counterpart in this universe or is he not around?"

Kurt shook his head slowly as he listened to her. "A lady Hawkeye," he said, still smiling. "And you joined the X-Men after the Avengers?"

"Well, you made a very  _persuasive_ argument," Kate said with an impish sort of grin.

Kurt let out a light laugh at that, clearly amused by Kate's antics. "I'm sure I knew I needed to act fast to keep such a beautiful woman for myself."

"Flirt," Kate laughed.

He grinned at her. "Well, if we are married, it clearly works."

She couldn't help but laugh at that as she nodded. "Oh yeah. You're irresistible, and I'd do anything for you. Join the X-Men, join the Church, get married, get pregnant…"

Kurt's tail had stopped swaying somewhere in the middle of Kate's sentence as he blinked at her in honest shock. "What?"

"What?" Kate said right back to him, turning to face him with her nose scrunched up a bit. She honestly didn't know what she'd said to make him stop smiling at her, but whatever it was, she definitely wanted to take it back.

"You said ... something about the Church," Kurt said almost haltingly.

Kate blinked at him for a moment before she broke into a little laugh and then nodded, barely fighting back the desire to kiss his cheek when he looked so cute all shocked like that — she  _was_ trying to learn from the time traveling she'd done before and was trying not to get too attached. "Well, I had a very near miss a few years back, and you helped me to learn about heaven, about God," she explained. She smiled warmly at him. "You're an excellent guide to all things spiritual."

Kurt couldn't quite help but smile widely at that. "I think," he said, "that I would like to know more about you. If there's another you in my world, I can only hope she is as enchanting as you."

"I hope so too," she agreed. "After all, I want my Elf happy."

Kurt's smile only seemed to get even brighter at the nickname — since, clearly, it meant that she was close to Logan as well — as they settled into a corner and Kate told him all about how they'd met.

* * *

The latest intel came back showing them that the facility that the bad guys had taken Logan to was the most heavily guarded facility in the western hemisphere. At least. It had its roots in an old Weapon X facility, and that on its own had given it an incredibly wicked start to nasty traps and security years ahead of everything else.

The maps they found of the place though ... they weren't much, and when K finally got to take a look at what they had, she let out a little growl when she saw how little they had to work with. "I know this place," she said low enough that most of them simply didn't catch it. She narrowed her eyes and tried to decipher what the chances were that this place wasn't entirely different from the one that she knew. There were no guarantees at any rate, but she wasn't going to just ignore that for as nasty as the place was in their reality, it would be hard to top.

"Okay," K said, letting out a breath before she dug through their maps and papers to find a sheet of vellum and laid it over the top of the building they were planning to infiltrate. She picked up a pencil and simply started drawing over the map — adding in tunnels and hidden rooms that lined up with what she knew back in her own reality.

Any questions that were asked K promptly ignored in favor of pure concentration as she tried to dig deeper into her memory of where every little thing was. Another three sheets later — each of them showing a deeper, more hidden level — she finally stopped and set the pencil down. "I can't promise that this is exactly what they have," K said evenly, though she had her arms crossed over her chest with a slightly uncomfortable expression on her face. "But … I need to help you guys finish this already so I can get back. Sooner is better than later."

Scott looked clearly as though he didn't trust any of it as he looked over the hand-drawn maps. "So your plan is to take a non-vetted path into the facility and then set off an EMP," he said in an almost dull tone.

"As a  _start._ I'm trying to show you where the real exits are," K said. "The entrances you know about are absolutely traps. Every damn one of them. If you were to trust me — which I know is asking for the moon — then you'd take one of these … two," she said, pointing at two different spots. "They're well hidden, even from inside."

Scott frowned her way. "We're already expecting it to be a trap."

She shook her head. "I know, but there's no reason to make it easy on them and give them what they want on a silver platter," she said. "At least make them fight for it." K let out a little breath and pointed to another spot, far removed from where she was suggesting they enter. "I'm going in here. It's a small access into the ventilation system, high enough up the wall that most people would never be able to reach it."

"And far enough from our position that you won't get caught in the EMP," Scott noted. "Convenient."

"I'm not trying to send you anywhere near an EMP," K said flatly. "I don't want  _you_ around it. At all. I can be in the EMP and have nothing happen." She tapped a different spot — more central and down a few levels. "This … this is where the EMP happens. Kill the power to the prison area. Chances are, Logan would get out on his own if the lights were off."

"That's the first thing you've said that I believe," he said.

"He says, speaking from experience," Kate said with a smirk, though most of the group was simply, carefully, watching the back and forth between Scott and K.

"I'll head down there as soon as the EMP goes off — which, again, I  _don't_ want you near. If she's down there, being awful, I'll deal with it. Get the mind controlled mutants and set off another EMP — or hope they're close enough when it goes off — and that shouldn't be an issue." K shook her head and leaned back from the drawings, arms crossed again. "But you'll need to move fast. Get him and whatever other mutants are down there  _out_  … before the big heads decide it's a lost cause. Whatever happens, you don't want them hitting their failsafe with you anywhere near it."

Scott watched her for a long moment before he finally let out all his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I must be out of my damn mind," he muttered under his breath before he looked back up at her. "Fine. I'm trusting you this one time. And only because Nate vouched for you."

"I get that," she agreed. "And for the record, if you can't tell the difference between us once this goes down — I won't be mad if you shoot the wrong one."

"If it comes down to that, I'm shooting you both and we'll let Nate sort it out when we get back," he promised her.

"Good," she said, nodding before she looked over to the women in attendance. "Any chance you have ops uniforms for us? Or are you banking on the bluejeans look?"

There was only a beat or two of hesitation before Storm stepped forward and waved the girls over, leaving Scott with Nate to discuss what he really thought about the whole affair.

 _You go for help and you bring back the one woman you_ know  _the rest of us can't trust,_ Scott projected to Nate.

 _I brought back the person I knew could stop this,_ Nate corrected him.  _And you might try laying off her. She just had a baby._

Scott frowned Nate's way for a long time before he finally leaned back and shook his head.  _I still don't like it._

_Dad, you know I wouldn't bring anyone here that would do that to you again._

Scott looked up to meet Nate's gaze for an instant before he finally, slowly nodded.  _Alright._

* * *

Ororo took them to their makeshift locker room, and true to form, K didn't hesitate to simply turn her back and change on the spot.

Of course, there were a few warnings from the Goddess — nothing short of a colorful method of frying K with everything she could muster if this went wrong. But as it turned out, K was over everyone threatening her. Her chest hurt … a lot. The longer they were gone, the more tender she was — which was only serving as a reminder of how desperately she needed to get back to take care of James. And that had her biting back a growl the entire time. She had a newborn waiting for her. A newborn that needed her to protect him. And it was in large part because of that, that K's hackles were raised and she was ready to just start shredding people.

"Listen," K said after Ororo was finished, "if something goes wrong, then I think you're going to need to just take a damn number on who gets to kill me. But if that's the case? Every one better eat their freakin' Wheaties if they think I'd make it that damn easy." She narrowed her eyes at the weather witch and let her lip curl up the slightest. "I know the me in this universe is a pill. I get that. But I'm here as a favor to you. I don't  _need_ to help you. I could easily stay curled up with  _my_ Logan and  _our_ kids and wash my hands of this crap, so if it's not going to kill you outright? Maybe try not taking out your issues on me when I'm not your freakin' target."

K was clearly in a mood now, which, wasn't overly surprising, all things considered. A person could only take so much of trusted family and friends telling you how awful you were and how not-trustworthy you were before a girl had enough. She stalked back toward where the others were gathered, and of course, heard some of the chatter of the less trusting in the crowd as she drew nearer. K took one look at Scott and Nate, who were clearly still in conversation — then looked over to the rest of the group and headed across the room to sit apart from them, arms and legs crossed.

Unsurprisingly, Kate was the one to come and sit beside her. "Maybe I should ask Cable to take you to a place where you're worshipped as a goddess after this. There's got to be, what, six thousand of those?" she said with a small smile.

"Highly. Doubtful," K growled out.

Kate let out a sigh and then rested her hand on K's arm. "I know it's frustrating. I'm sorry. I'd smack them all upside the head, but then they'd think I was an enemy agent," she said, still trying to tease K into a little smile.

"I think lil' Nate is trying to tick me off a bit more before we go. Because that was so good for everyone after Elin."

"I mean, to be fair, it  _was_?" Kate pointed out with a small smile, almost cringing at the admission. "I mean, you crippled the Kree last time."

"Stupid blue jackasses," K growled out low.

Kate gestured to K. "Case in point," she said.

K narrowed her eyes then turned toward Cable. "Did you bring me here  _now_ just because I just had the little one?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "There were other considerations, too."

K watched him for a long moment. "But that was part of it."

He tipped his head slightly. "Not for all of the reasons you think."

"Please, Sweet Time Skipper. Enlighten me."

"Besides the obvious time crunch and ferocity?" He gestured to her. "I needed to make sure I brought back a K that we could distinguish from the one in this dimension. Not just telepathically, since historically, that's not real easy with you."

K thought about it for a long while before she let out a sigh. "I better get something nice for Mother's Day from you, or I will slap you back in time."

"It was for Christmas, and it's on your dresser."

"Good boy," she said, then ran her hand over her face. "So what are we waiting on? If you want to be slick, you and your dad could bodyslide in."

"Let's just stick with what we've got," Scott said, shaking his head. "We've already made assignments — we're just waiting for the last shift of Sentinels to pass our hideout before we can head out."

"Give it five minutes," Kitty said. "They're very prompt."

K nodded and simply waited, though she rested her head on Kate's shoulder for the wait. "You know what this means, right? That these punks simply can't make it without us."

"Obviously," Kate said with a smile. "We're amazing. I've already got this Kurt ready to go find his Hawkeye and woo her off her feet." She paused and leaned over with a smirk. "I'm really hoping she's at least eighteen in this universe, or that could get weird."

"How big were your daddy issues?" K asked.

"Not  _that_ big."

"He is really too old for you," K said, sitting back. "But you know... this one … maybe it's not as far along as in our world. Look at Kitty."

"I have, and I noticed, and I like the old man I have, thanks," Kate said, shaking her head. "I  _just_ got through the last time travel thing unattaching a Kurt; don't make me do it again. It's not fun."

"Are you the dirty older woman this time around?" she teased.

"Please stop." Kate made a horrible face. "Just no."

"From Hawkeye to Cougar.  _Rawr_."

"Hey, but you're the one married to me," Kate pointed out.

"Super cougar," K said, nodding. "Still will never be as weird as Summers family dynamics."

"Nothing can be as weird as that," Kate giggled.

K finally broke into a crooked smile and chuckled lightly. "That's really saying something, considering the other future you saw."

"Hey, I said 'weird', not 'evil as all get out'. Get your ears cleaned, old lady."

"Don't be hateful like that, sweetheart."

Kate smirked and shook her head. "Yeah. Still weird."

"Yeah, just think of poor America."

"She can never, ever know," Kate said seriously. "Or I will never, ever,  _ever_ get any peace."

"Hey. I'm the one that kissed her. I think she'll let it go." K shrugged. "She hasn't brought  _that_ up."

"True," Kate had to agree, though she was still making a face.

"She'd probably think I made it up just to make her jealous."

"Also true," Kate couldn't help but laugh, though their banter died off when Kitty gave them the all-clear signal that the Sentinels were moving on — which meant it was safe to get going.

"Don't get caught — don't get hurt," K said to Kate as she got to her feet and simply started to head off — not waiting for Scott.

"Love you too!" Kate called out to her.

K only paused for an instant to blow a kiss Kate's way — and then kept moving all the same.


	3. K vs K

Scott still didn't like this plan.

It wasn't that he didn't approve of it or that he didn't think it was their best shot. He just didn't  _like_ any plan that involved a first wave that they knew was going to get captured. It was why he'd insisted that he be that first wave alone — but he'd be lying if he said it didn't make him nervous. He still remembered the last time he'd been captured, bound, blinded, and barely escaped with his life.

Of course, it also didn't help that he was headed in with the woman who'd captured him the last time.

"Kurt has the restraints, right?" K asked before the two of them broke apart to take their separate paths in. "Both sets — even if we get her down. Don't trust her feet. That's my best tool to throw my weight around."

Scott glanced over at her with a frown before he nodded slowly. "He's got them. Both sets — and Storm has another set if necessary," he added. Technically, that set was for Logan if things went south on that front as well, but he still wasn't quite ruling out the possibility that K could be turned against them too. Even if Nate vouched for her, these people they'd been fighting had done it once, and there was no reason to think they couldn't do it again if they got a hold of her.

"Good," she said quietly. "Because I want to get out of this place. Now."

"You and me both," Scott said, the very corner of his mouth twitching.

Just before they broke off, K took a moment to give him a more serious look. "Watch your back,  _please._ "

Scott blinked at her for a moment in honest surprise at the concern in her tone before he shrugged lightly. "I always do."

"Well, watch it more then," she said, in a more sarcastic tone before she darted off toward her entrance point.

He shook his head at her as he went around to the area she'd pointed out on their map. To his surprise, it  _was_ clearer than any of the entry points they had from their own intelligence — the guard detail was much lighter, more manageable. He shook his head to himself.  _Alright, Nate, good pick,_ he admitted to himself, grudgingly, as he made his way in.

Of course, K had slipped into the treeline silently and was sure to skip over all of the little traps and triggers that were commonplace around these facilities. It was almost effortless — as well it should have been, with as many as she'd been around. It was just a matter of  _remembering_ all of them. "This has to be at least fifteen years before we met them," K muttered to herself. "So …" She stopped and crept closer to the edge of the trees, looking for the cameras that were markers of where she was. "Now to watch the timing .." She kept half an eye on the cameras as they panned left and right, and when both of them were facing the wrong way, she darted forward and popped her claws to start scaling the wall up to the ventilation point. It didn't take much to pry open the vent — especially after she cut the screws and the seal on the thing, and shortly after, she was inside. She hit the comm at her side just to let the outside team know. "I'm in."

She turned the volume on her earpiece down to the point that even she had to strain to hear it as she moved further into the building. It wasn't too long, though, before she heard the bustle down below, and she moved closer to a vent to see if she could watch the planned capture go down — or at least watch where they were headed.

She could hear the voices of the soldiers being overly smug. Scott had been caught, of course — and they'd taken his weapons and worked him over already, judging by the way he was favoring one side and the bruises she could see forming on the left side of his face. K frowned when she saw the look he was wearing but then turned direction and silently made her way closer to where she thought he'd be taken. Just to confirm. But that really just gave her a better view of the sassiness that was coming out of him.

"Too bad for you we don't have any reason to keep the  _useless_ ones around," one of the soldiers said as he manhandled Scott closer to the door, and K raised an eyebrow, cataloguing the scent so she could take his head off later.

"Should've thought about that before," Scott pointed out. "Missing the optic blasts already?"

But that only got a sneer from the guy before he hit Scott in the gut, knocking the air out of him.

K watched the code getting punched into the access panel and turned again — toward her own target this time — though this time she was projecting rather than using the comm.  _Jean, I hope you're listening. Five digit code. 33274_

 _Of course I'm listening,_ came the response.  _I'll get him out._

 _Yes. Get him clear before I kill that guard detail,_ K replied, though she was clearly focused on getting to her mark. It was in a central location, and a quick peek through the grated vents confirmed that there weren't many cameras there to guard the entrance — which was completely understandable when one considered how many layers of security someone would have to get there. But that just meant that setting the EMP's would be a fairly painless process.

_On your mark when the second wave attacks, I'll hit this thing and they can think it's the mutant effect. Or whatever. It'll kill their central communications, but Scott is far enough underground that he shouldn't be affected by it. I don't want him blinded again after all this nonsense._

This time, it was Nate who responded.  _We're almost there. I'll let you know as soon as we're ready._

K leaned back and watched the door, waiting for Nate's signal before she dropped out of her hiding spot. No sense in waiting in the open for something to go wrong ahead of time. But when Nate finally gave her the go ahead, it all started very quickly.

She slipped out of the ventilation and kicked the door open, but the alarms only sounded for a second before she jammed the EMP into the mainframe. There was a massive spark as the shockwave went out — and the entire complex flickered. All communications that the government had through the computers were dead — as well as all communications that were above ground. Their Sentinels were grounded simply because, at this point — even though their armor protected the machines themselves — the soldiers couldn't turn them on remotely, so as long as the X-Men could keep the soldiers away from the Sentinels, they didn't  _need_ to fight them.

They did have the entirety of the US Armed Forces that were on site, though.

Inside the building, it was pitch dark as K ran toward the entrance for the lower levels. Her comms had died out too, and it was a matter of simply getting down to where the action was going to be. From outside, it was easy for the rest of the team to track where she was inside the building simply by watching the gunfire through the windows.

"Kind of jealous she didn't take me with her," Kate said to Kurt as the last wave arrived to see the state of things.

"You did notice that her version of the plan didn't really outline anything but to get the two of them inside, didn't you?" Jean said from behind the two of them.

"I did. She always hogs the fun," Kate said, poking out her lower lip in a dramatic pout.

"It's a good thing that we're used to the mess then," Kurt replied, though his tail was starting to sway with anticipation of the fight ahead.

"Oh, you hog the fun too, sweetheart," she teased him without even turning his way as she pulled an arrow from her quiver. "You and your best friend.  _Constantly_."

"At least that doesn't change from one reality to the next," Kurt said with a light sort of chuckle.

Ahead of them, Storm had turned the playing field almost into what looked like a mass of lightning rods — actually using the inactive Sentinels as a means to disperse more massive bolts of electricity across multiple targets. Once they were fried, of course, Kitty was phasing through their internal CPU's — the action on its own more than enough to render each of the Sentinels useless.

And Nate was handling waves of soldiers, smirking to himself at how smooth it was all going — on the outside, anyhow.

 _You are so smug right now,_ Kate projected to him when she saw the look on his face as they got closer.  _You're totally channeling the patented Summers 'I was right' face._

Nate looked her way, and the smirk only widened.  _Well, I was, wasn't I?_

 _Well, obviously,_ Kate said, chuckling to herself.  _I mean, you brought in two of the best of the best. And clearly, this place_ needs  _a little Hawkeye cheer and K ingenuity._

 _Clearly,_ Nate said, not bothering to hide how amused he was before he turned back to the fight he was handling, tossing a half dozen soldiers back into the middle of Storm's lightning storm.

Kate smirked to herself before she turned her attention back to fighting the soldiers surrounding them. When she ran out of arrows — stupid Cable hadn't warned her so that she could bring  _more than one quiver_  — she used the bow as a staff for a moment before she called out to Kurt: "Can I borrow a sword?"

Kurt had been dealing with soldiers the best way he knew how — teleporting fast and keeping them off their guard and unable to properly defend themselves — but when he saw that she had used up her arrows, he teleported to her in an instant and got her out of the knot of soldiers she was fighting.

Kate let out a breath of frustration. It was just like Japan all over again. "I don't need a rescue; I need a sword," she explained, trying to keep her tone from sounding overly frustrated. This was a younger Kurt, after all. "Seriously. When you find me in this reality, you're going to have to learn fast: I don't like being treated like a china doll."

Kurt frowned at that, losing a bit of the dashing-rescuer smile that he'd had on until that moment. "You looked like you could use the hand," he said.

"Yes, I could use a  _sword_ ," she said, resting one hand on his left hand to steal the sword that he had there. "And this one will do nicely, thank you!" she said, her tone prim as she twirled the sword in her hand in a move that  _her_ Kurt had taught her.

And this Kurt absolutely recognized it, letting out a little laugh when he saw her poised to jump into the action. "I take it you and I fence often where you are from?" he teased.

"Oh, all the time," she said. "You taught me the dual wield, sweetheart."

"Something to look forward to, then."

"And sometimes we even sparred with swords."

Kurt stopped and turned Kate's way, then let out a delighted laugh. "Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to meeting you in my time."

"Just remember not to treat me like a damsel in distress," Kate warned with one eyebrow up his way.

But that was more than Kurt could ignore, and he let out another laugh as he teleported to where she was and made quick work of several soldiers around them before he made a sweeping bow and kissed her hand. "And what if I simply feel like showing off?"

Kate couldn't help but laugh. "Showing off is  _definitely_ allowed."

"Oh good. I can't imagine any version of myself that would be so  _restrained_ ," Kurt said, the smile on his face widening into something a little more troublemaking.

"Oh, you are  _fun_ at this age," Kate giggled outright. "Come on,  _Engelchen_ , let's take down some bad guys and put the rest of the X-Men to  _shame_."

"A regular occurrence where you're from, I'm sure."

"Oh, every day," she assured him with a wicked smile.

"Is it possible for you two to just  _not_?" Kitty asked, phasing through the wall of the building nearby with her nose scrunched up and a look of near disgust.

"Oh, never," Kate said, unable to stop laughing at the familiar refrain. "Never ever."

Kitty made another face and shook her head before she turned toward Jean. "Coast is clear," she said.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Jean, whose entire expression changed when she heard it. The little smirk she had been wearing listening to the banter going back and forth hardened into what Kate recognized as a total murder glare. She'd seen it before on Rachel, but on Jean, it seemed to be super concentrated.

 _And that,_ Kate thought to herself,  _is the Rescue the Husband face._ She shook her head to herself. She knew that Scott and Jean had been a thing before, but it was weird seeing that face and associating it with Scott and it  _not_ being Annie.

That was the thing about time travel and dimension shifts, she knew. It wasn't like she didn't have experience with that much, considering she had seen  _hundreds_ of different versions of herself and the other Young Avengers before.

Maybe it was different because Jean looked so much like Rachel that there was the added weirdness of the split second when Kate would look at her and think she was Scott's daughter and not his wife and that was  _all_ kinds of weird.

Kate pushed that thought out of her mind and went back to what she was doing. Shooting bad guys was  _way_ more satisfying than trying to figure out Summers family dynamics, especially with the added element of time and space travel.

As for Jean, she did her level best to ignore Kate's mental commentary as she passed, instead letting Kitty phase her into the facility so that she could get moving to find Scott. K had already broadcast his position as well as the code to get to him, so she didn't necessarily have to sweep the guards' minds to find out where they were holding him.

But she did anyway, just in case they had moved him and K hadn't seen it — and what she heard there about their plans to kill him as soon as he'd outlived his usefulness had more than figurative fire in her eyes. Especially since his 'usefulness' came down to a 'deterrent' to get Logan to  _behave_ or risk hurting Scott further.

Jean blazed a path through the facility, sending a psychic blast through anyone that was stupid enough to stand in her way as she did so, though when she arrived, she couldn't help but pause when she saw that K had already beaten her to the punch and was making the group of guards who brought Scott in from the trap pay. Dearly.

Most of them were already dead, but the one who had been doing most of the taunting was still in K's grasp as she expertly twisted him up, steel in her gaze as he whimpered in her grasp.

"Well," Jean said as she stopped in the doorway, looking over the damage K had done to the group of guards. " _Now_ you're more like the K we know."

K hardly glanced up from what she was doing before, with a twist of her wrist, the man in her grasp fell limp to the floor. Then, finally, she looked up at Jean, her claws already retracted again as she wiped her hands on her pants. "I'm going to disagree to that one."

Jean shook her head at that but didn't say anything. Instead, she went to the keypad to enter in the code K had given her — though before she could step through, K put a hand on her arm.

"Let me go first," she suggested.

Jean paused for a moment. She could see the wisdom in the suggestion, since the guards and soldiers at the facility wouldn't look too hard at K. She was, after all, an established 'asset', and they had no idea that Nate had gone to get a different K.

But on the other hand,  _Scott_ was on the other side of that door. And even if he wouldn't admit it to anyone else, she could feel through their bond that he was  _not_ okay with having been captured by these guys again. These were the people who had tortured and blinded him before Jean could get there to stop them, and even if it had been his plan, she knew it was messing with him to be back in that same situation. Beyond the physical hurt, he was mentally freaking out — and she knew it.

"I won't get between you two," K said, raising one eyebrow Jean's way. "I won't even get in the way of whatever it is you want to do to whoever's holding him. I just want you to get that far first." She took a deep breath and then inclined her head, switching to telepathic communication as she projected to her,  _And I'm sure your husband doesn't want you rushing into that mess in your condition._

Jean stopped, then let her shoulders drop as she nodded. Of course, she should have realized that K could smell it.  _I'm not that far along._

 _All the same to them_ —  _a few weeks or months,_ K said, the beginnings of a smirk at the corner of her mouth.  _I've seen firsthand how ridiculous your husband gets about babies._ She held up her hands.  _I'm not saying don't make these guys regret every life choice they've ever made. Just let me draw their fire first so your sweet brown-eyed boy doesn't have a stroke._

Jean couldn't help but smile when she could hear the honest concern for Scott in K's mental voice.  _Your Scott must be very lucky to have you looking out for him,_ she couldn't help but tease.

 _He has no idea, and likely never will at the rate he's going,_ K said before she seemed to straighten up and simply stalked through the doors to the holding area with her chin tipped up.  _Stay back for just a few minutes. Just out of sight_ —  _or psychically block yourselves if that's an option._

Once they were through, they saw that the gambit had paid off, at least insomuch as they had guessed right that the guards would take Scott to the same place Logan was being held. Logan was heavily restrained with metal coverings over his hands to keep him from popping his claws, strapped into place with heavy metal bands, and Scott was one cell away on the floor. At the moment K walked in, Scott was still gasping to get his breath back from a hard hit by the man who was clearly the handler, one hand on his chest for a moment before the man kicked Scott again.

Biting back a growl, K switched to a more controlled facade and walked in like she owned the place She was sure to look over at the men in charge as if they were boring her to tears. She stood apart from them — and as soon as she knew who was in charge of which switch, she darted forward and attacked their leader first. From there, it was really just a matter of keeping everyone in the room. And while K went to town, the group of X-Men hiding under Jean's psychic shielding were sure to make it look to anyone in the conjoining areas that nothing was amiss — even as they trashed their communications devices.

"You can't get into the lock without the General's clearance," one of the uniformed men said from where he'd been crippled on the floor, but K ignored him as she sliced through the bars for Scott.

"Your sweetheart is just down the hall keeping the path clear," she told Scott as she cut through his restraints. "I'm told the central EMP was enough to screw them pretty well. Imagine that."

"Funny how that works," Scott said through his teeth — which was as good an indication as any as to how he was doing.

When K was sure Scott was freed, she pulled him to his feet and waited to be sure he wasn't going to fall over in a stupid attempt to stay upright before he was ready, she headed next to Logan's cell, though she barely got in before the growls filled the air. K couldn't help but shake her head at him. "If I wanted to hurt you, it would have been done. Knock it off," she said as she made her way closer to look the restraints over. He was pretty well stuck, but still, the first thing she did was to see how to get the muzzle off.

Of course, he didn't trust her in the least and was nearly snarling as she managed to pop the lock on it without slicing him up. The rest of it …  _feet first,_  she thought to herself, knowing that it was going to be ugly  _fast._ "Try not to move, please?" K said before she cut loose his ankles and then the restraints that kept him held tight in place, saving his wrists and the gloves for last, of course. Through it all, Logan didn't move a muscle beyond what was absolutely necessary for him to watch her every move.

And just like she knew was going to happen, the instant he had a hand loose, he hit her hard — and sent her skidding halfway across the room. Of course, that really only hit the wrong button, and she wasn't going to take it. By the time Logan had his other hand free, she was moving to charge, and before any of the others could make it to where the prisoners were held, the two ferals were in an all-out brawl.

She'd never really had to fight him like this before, and when they locked up their claws, he wasn't sure how to take it when K muttered under her breath. "I knew you were holding back, you  _jackass_."

She didn't have a clean way to end the fight — especially since, even though he clearly wasn't going to slow himself down,  _she_ still didn't want to hurt him. She met his gaze and retracted one set of claws just long enough to reach over and hit the pressure point near his elbow to force him to retract — but that really started more of a fist fight.

By the time he'd really flattened her, Scott had made his way over despite K's warning to take it easy. Logan had her pinned solidly, a knee on one of her wrists as he held her other hand down and a fist stuck under her chin — growling low the whole time. "How bad are you hurt, Slim?" Logan growled out without looking Scott's way.

K squirmed a little, but when she saw she wasn't getting loose at all, she relaxed, and even took it a step further, tipping her head back and exposing her throat more.

"Logan, I'm fine — and that's not who you think it is," Scott said as Jean came up beside him and wrapped one arm around his middle to give him some support.

"It's fine," K said. "But once these idiots see that there's been a jailbreak, they're going to hit the failsafe."

"Then we need to  _move_ ," Scott said, tipping his head Logan's way. "Nate brought her," he explained.

"Oh, come on, you buy that?" Logan grumbled.

"Yes,  _we_ do," Jean said, giving him a pointed look.

"There has to be something different," K said, arching an eyebrow as she glanced up at him.

 _Logan, her scent,_ Jean prompted when he still looked furious.

He glared over at Jean for a moment. "What the hell are you talking about?" He held Jean's gaze for a moment before he looked back down at K and pulled his fist back. "If you bite me—

"Not without permission," she couldn't help but tease — but then quickly managed to put her game face on again. "Obviously."

Logan was clearly off his guard with the tease and carefully leaned closer, only to frown a whole lot deeper as he looked her over more carefully. "Gimmie the quick version, Jeannie."

"Nate found another version of K who is apparently head over heels for you," Jean said, unable to hide her smirk. "That's your son you're smelling."

"Which is why  _I_ held back from kicking your ass," K had to say. "You're welcome."

"Nate thought the best workaround for our K was another K," Scott put in. "We can get into the details later. Right now, that EMP isn't going to last forever."

"It'll still take them a while to reset the system," K said as Logan finally let her up. "I'm not worried about that, though — I'm worried about the nuke in the basement. Do you mind?" She got to her feet and had to take a moment in spite of herself to brush herself off. K gave Logan a quick once over and then simply stepped by the gathered group. "Stay close, and we can slip out," she said just before she started running down the hall a different way than they'd come — which was incredibly fortuitous, since when they were nearly to the second exit, there was a small explosion from the way they'd come in. "Starting to seal the exits — shake a leg if you want out."

The freight elevator that they were riding in was pretty full by the time all of them were packed into it. Everyone had of course grouped up as they usually did, which left K and Kate a bit out of the loop, not that they were entirely alone, since Kurt was positively fascinated by Kate, and Logan was sticking close to Kurt.

But Kate could see that K was tense by how she was standing, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her back straight as an arrow. The fact that she wasn't looking toward the others or even trying to joke around was another wicked tip off. For anyone with a brain.

"Okay, we got the boss man and the hug magnet, so what's the hangup here?" Kate whispered to K with a frown.

"Don't know, but now that we did what we came for, I'm caring less and less," she replied.

"I meant with  _you_ , but okay, that too," Kate said.

"Just … remembering why I hate these facilities — and everyone in them," K replied. "Can't be in the building without getting treated like trash, and it's rubbing me the wrong way, that's all."

Kate nodded slowly and then even went so far as to lean over and rest her chin on K's shoulder. "When this is over, after you've had some James and Elin snuggles and kisses from the right Logan, I'm going to take you out for smoothies or something. Just us. No idiots."

"We'll see," she said. "You're going to be suffering from  _proper_ Elf withdrawal."

"This is true," Kate said with a little nod. "But I can spare an hour of girl time, I think."

"You have an anniversary coming up fast," K said with a laugh. "No you can't."

"I do," Kate agreed, laughing herself. "But think of how funny it would be if we took an hour and did an engagement shoot.  _Just_ for America."

"I'm sure Peter will volunteer if we let him in on the joke."

Kate couldn't help but grin at her. "Yes good. This is happening now."

K finally turned her way and leaned over to kiss Kate's cheek. "You're horrible. But that's why I agreed to marry you."

Kate fell apart in giggles at that. "Best wife ever," she agreed with as straight a face as she could manage. The mood of the elevator seemed to lift a little bit, though they all fell into silence until K couldn't help but start singing  _Chapel of Love_ under her breath Kate's way.

Finally, the doors opened, and K once again held her arm out to stop the others before she stepped out to check, nodding as soon as she saw that the way was clear, and started to jog out ahead of them. She'd barely gotten out of the main doors to the outside world when she got hit from the side by... herself.

It started out with a dirty shot. Her doppelganger got her claws caught on K's ribcage, which was honestly a fatal error on her part, since as K had said before, she was already in a foul mood on top of the fact that she was, in fact, in actual  _need_ to get back to feed her newborn. She was sore already, and this …  _person_ was standing in the way of K getting back to her little ones. Instead of letting her pull back, K took a hold of her arm and let out a low, rumbling snarl before landing a few hard, quick hits to the other K's face and neck. By the time the rest of them caught up, K and her evil version were nothing but snarls and blood flying back and forth.

Both of them were moving almost too fast to see — and the fighting style was markedly different. The K under mind control was working in a very similar manner to what Logan usually did, but the new-mom K was holding the claws back until the very last possible second, using her momentum with the claws popping to add extra umph to her hits. Outside of that, though, the only real difference that Kate could decipher was the simple fact that one of them was growling and snarling a little bit lower than the other.

It was obvious that the other X-Men wanted to step in and help somehow as they formed a sort of semi circle around the two women, but with how close and dirty the fight was, they couldn't find an angle to get involved — and neither of the telepaths could get into either K's mind easily. Even if they could have, though, it's not like either of them would have had much to read when it was clear the only thought either of them had was taking out the other.

"This is  _so_ weird to watch from this side of it," Kate muttered under her breath, though she did notice that this Kurt had stepped slightly in front of her.  _Still not past the protective stage,_ she thought, then paused and couldn't help but smirk to herself.  _Not that he ever really did get past it._

The two women fighting pulled apart for a moment, and the mind-controlled K made a rush for the group of X-Men, but that really only seemed to get an even lower growl out of K before she grabbed a hold of her and hauled her backwards with a low, almost inaudible 'not gonna happen'. She managed to grab a hold of her attacker's arm and, with a nasty twist, dislocated it at the elbow and shoulder as she got a handful of claws into her chest.

When the compromised little feral pulled back, holding her injured arm and snarling, K lunged — faster than the group was used to seeing from  _their_ reality's K. She started to pound on her — kicking her above the knee and tearing loose whatever muscle masses she could. It was a few nasty hits that rendered the woman incapable of healing fast enough to get away, let alone fight back properly. But K kept going. Even when it was clear that she'd won, she kept it up with hits and strikes that would cripple a non healer for months or more — and before it was over, she'd twisted her around into a pretzel. It was clear she was in utter pain.

Both arms were dislocated, and one leg too — the pop on that one had half of the gathered group cringing at the sound and the rest turning away from the scream that had followed. That ... wasn't going to heal on its own. And at the very least, Logan knew it — and was frowning at the two women.

"Cuffs," K snarled out, looking toward Scott and breathing hard.

Scott had his hand on the cuffs but didn't move to throw them her way, looking Logan's way instead. "Logan?" he prompted, knowing if it was the wrong K, Logan would know better than the others.

Logan turned to Scott and took the cuffs, ready to knock her over if need be, but when he got closer, K simply tossed her hair over her shoulder and tipped her head to the side, offering him her neck so he could have a chance to find somewhere without as much blood.

But even with that, it took a few moments before Logan reached around her to cuff the woman on the ground. "Let's get out of here, Slim. Fast."

"No arguments there," Kate muttered to Kurt, even as Scott started directing the group out of the facility — with Jean half supporting him the whole time and totally wrapped around him.

When Logan and K both pulled the 'other' K to her feet, she was the one to utter the threat. "So much as a growl in the wrong place, and I'll take your head clean off, you get me?" K growled out before she started to shove  _herself_ forward. That on its own was enough to get Logan frowning at both of them. "We'll see how this goes when we get back to wherever."

"Yeah," Logan muttered quietly, though he took a moment to catch the strip of fabric that Kurt tossed him and blindfolded the restrained K as well before they headed out.


	4. I Hate Time Travel

The group was back at their hideout, not yet settled in, and Kurt and Logan were taking the restrained K to a more secured room, when there was a low rumbling, and the whole area shook. They all turned to look at one another, and K simply shrugged at them. "I told you they'd blow it. Surprised it took that long for them to do it."

"We did screw them around pretty badly," Kate pointed out with a satisfied kind of smirk.

"Well, they did ask for it," K said before she turned to look at Nate. "So … you're done with us, right? Or do we need to help with other things before you send us back?"

"Oh, no, wait," Kate said, holding up one hand as the other dug in her pocket for her phone. "No, before we leave, I need a picture. Nate, don't you  _dare_."

Nate smirked for a moment and then shook his head. "You're still our best bet keeping her restrained, and we  _do_ want those controls out — or we'll be doing this all over again later," he pointed out to K.

K rolled her eyes and readjusted her crossed arms again. "What kind of picture do you want, Kate?"

"Group picture," Kate said.

"No."

"Please?" Kate stuck her lower lip out as far as it would go. "I didn't have my bamf photographer, and I  _need_ to get photographic evidence to blow Billy and Teddy's minds. You know they will lose it."

"You can do that without me. Or … I'll take your picture for you," K said.

Kate frowned at that but let her shoulders drop as she nodded her agreement. "Okay, that's fair. We need Nate in the picture anyway. His fault we're here."

K took Kate's phone and stepped away from the group, waiting for them to bunch up together. Cable stood next to his parents, and Kurt draped an arm around Logan and Ororo, with Kitty and Kate together in front of them. Once everyone was together, K whistled a quick, high tone and snapped a few pictures — though while the group was getting together, and chatting afterward, she was sure to get a few shots of Cable talking with Jean and Scott.

As soon as they started to break apart, K held out the phone for Kate. "Done, and done." She turned to watch the group breaking off again and looked down at the half-wrecked uniform, grumbling to herself quietly. "I'm going to clean up and get out of this thing," K said to Kate. "Go flirt with your non-hubby. You're enjoying it way too much."

Kate grinned at that. "I'm going to have to ask Nate if the me in this universe is even  _around_ — or things are going to be awkward for that poor boy  _very_ soon."

"By my guess on the tech, we're about fifteen years before I stepped into this mess anyhow … so … do the math, beautiful."

"Yeah, but I'm hoping for his sake that there's a me that's, I dunno, a little bit older? Younger? Whatever the terminology is for being born right now?"

K tipped her chin up toward Nate. "He's done  _glowing._  So you're probably safe. Brown eyes is doing the 'plotting and planning face'."

Kate let out a little laugh at that as she threw an arm around K's shoulders. "He really is just the sweetest when he's around  _any_ version of his parents and family, isn't he? Just melts into a puddle. Total Summers move."

"Puddle of goo," K said, then pulled a face. "Which … is what I need to clean off. See you in a few. Probably." She shrugged Kate's arm off of her shoulder and headed down the hall to where they'd changed in search of a shower and her own clothes.

Kate shook her head before she squared her shoulders and marched her way over to Cable to pull on his arm to get his attention. "I  _need_ to know something about the me in this universe. It's very crucial," she told him, her eyes as wide as she could get them to stress the importance of it.

"You're not subtle at all, Kate," Nate replied.

Kate put a hand over her heart. "Did I  _say_ I was subtle? No!" She shook her head and then gestured to Kurt, who was laughing with Kitty about something. "I just want to know if the cutest Elf in the world is going to be waiting for  _ages_ to find his  _me_."

"I'd have to go looking," he told her. "I was focused on this group, not everyone in  _your_  group, if you want the truth."

"Well, that's just ridiculous. Where are your priorities?" Kate teased him. "This is the matchup of the century!"

Nate gestured to Logan, who looked as if he was simply thinking everything that had happened over by himself. He hadn't had the chance to talk to Scott or Jean, but it was pretty obvious he was overthinking things. As usual. "Had to get him out of trouble," Nate said. "That  _was_ the point. That and the whole … well. You'll see."

"I'll see? Oh come on, Nate. I'm not going to stick around  _that_ long. Tell me, please?"

"We're not done yet," he told her.

"Well, obviously. We can't be done yet, because  _you_ need to find this universe's Hawkeye," Kate said as if this was perfectly reasonable.

He couldn't help but smirk at that. "I'll see what I can do in my downtime."

"Oh good, because I think Young Kurt is in love with me, and I'd hate for him to  _pine_."

Nate leaned forward, his eyes sparkling. "Just because he's in love with  _you_ doesn't mean the  _you_ from this time is going to fall for him."

Kate let out a noise that portrayed exactly how much she disagreed with him. "No way. Unless I'm  _evil_ here, which… don't tell me if I am, but maybe warn Kurt…"

"I'm pretty sure you're not," Nate said. "There aren't a whole lot of evil humans that aren't political or military."

"Well, my dad's evil, so I  _could_ be an evil politician," Kate said, nodding seriously. "This is a real problem. Kurt would be  _heartbroken_."

"I will look, Kate," Nate swore, grinning.

Kate beamed at him and threw her arms around his neck to give him a hug. "You're the best!" She made sure to give him a kiss on his cheek for good measure before she all but flounced over to Logan to plop down beside him and stage-whisper, "I think Nate's ears are as red as his mom's hair."

"What do you want?" Logan grumbled with a glare. "And where the hell did you come from?"

"Well, strictly speaking, I hitched a ride with Nate. I'm K's friend from a different dimension, married to Kurt, you're godfather to our baby girl, it's a  _long_ story."

He let out a huff and shook his head. "Alright, crazy. Whatever you say."

"If you doubt me, I have wedding pictures," she said. "Kurt was your best man, though he  _almost_ officiated. He kept bouncing back and forth between the two options, and it was adorable."

"Lady, keep your crazy to yourself," he said before he got up to put some distance between them.

Kate let out a sigh that moved through her whole body. Now that she had a group picture, she really didn't have anything to  _do_ in this reality, and it was hard to deal with a Logan who didn't know her when she was  _trying_ to get him out of his head. She recognized that 'overthinking things' look — and don't think she hadn't noticed the way he was watching Scott and Jean fuss over each other, because she had. She was a Hawkeye, for crying out loud.

"How am I supposed to be helpful if he's just gonna ignore me? Stupid grumpy hug magnet," Kate muttered to herself as she kicked her feet up, going through her phone to look at the pictures K had snapped.

"You're not going to get through to him like that," Kurt told her as he came to sit with her.

Kate let out a sigh but put her phone away to give Kurt her attention. "Where I'm from, Logan and I have a long, long history of teasing each other out of slumps. It usually works."

"Yes, well. He doesn't know you here," Kurt said quietly. "And his first introduction was when you were on the team to save him. He doesn't like when that happens."

"He has both the worst self-image in the universe and the biggest ego on the planet, and I will  _never_ understand how they exist in the same person," Kate said, tipping her head back dramatically.

Kurt couldn't stop the smile, and a moment later, he was chuckling. "That is probably the finest description I've ever heard, yet misses so much."

"Hey, I'm a Hawkeye. I call it like I see it," she said, though she'd turned her head to grin at him.

"And your friend?" Kurt asked. "Is she just as bad?"

"In some ways, yes, and in other ways, worse. But somehow better too," Kate said. "It's like… if you took Logan, gave him a complex about evil Canadians, then made him marry a Canadian, and then throw in a lot of worry about how women were treated in Ye Olden Days?" She scrunched up her nose. "But she's also funnier. And if  _my_ Logan heard me say that, he'd agree."

"Well, I'm afraid our Logan has only seen the side of her that's … vicious. And calculating."

"Oh, she's got that in our universe, too, but directed at the bad guys," Kate said, still leaning back and more than comfortable as she chatted with Kurt. "I mean, there was one point where your dad showed up, and it was  _nasty_."

He raised his eyebrows at that. "My father?"

"Oh, yeah, that…" Kate made a face. "Don't get me wrong. Being Mrs. Nightcrawler is  _amazing_ , but your dad deserved to get his ear bitten off, okay?"

"She bit his ear off?" Kurt said, clearly not expecting that.

"He was in our  _bedroom_ , and if I'd had my way, I would've cut off more than that," Kate grumped, then shook her head. "Point is, I've seen the very vicious side of K come out, but it's always been in defense of our friends and family."

"Then I hope that removing whatever it is that they're using against this K will at least stop some of her murderous tendencies."

"I think it will," Kate said. "The K I know wouldn't go along with any of this willingly. She has too much love in her heart. You should  _see_ her with the littlest ones in the mansion." She grinned and tipped her head Scott's way. "His twins?  _Adore_ her."

"You say the most amazing and mind-blowing things, Kate."

Kate grinned over at him. "Well, to be fair, I'm pretty sure I'm from a future that's several years ahead, so I'm probably cheating a little bit."

Kurt grinned at her for a moment and seemed to be almost holding his breath before he quickly leaned in and stole a quick kiss. "Perhaps a bit."

Kate blinked at him in pure surprise and then shook her head quickly. "Oh. Wait. No, you need to find  _your_ Kate," she said, holding up her hands. "I just went through this with Older You and ... I …" She bit her lip. "I love  _my_ Kurt. And as much as you're him, you're not." She instinctively covered his hand with hers and gave him a quick squeeze. "I'm… going to go find K…" she said, getting to her feet and leaving Kurt frowning a bit at her hasty retreat.

K had of course cleaned up and changed, but she was more than a little bit flustered with everything. They hadn't been in that time for very long, but Nate's timing — though great for mother bear tendencies — had been horrible for pretty much everything else. Her hormones were going wild, and she was having trouble keeping her emotions in check because of it. And to make matters more irritating, her chest flat out  _hurt._  It didn't help at all that the flannel that she'd been wearing was a bit too tight now, and she was more than ready to get.  _Out_.

But she couldn't really go where the bulk of the group was — particularly since it was clear that they didn't trust her. That or she scared them. Either or. Didn't matter. The outcome was the same, so of course, she found an empty room that smelled like no one had been using it and simply curled up in the far corner, hugging her knees and sure that Nate would find her when he needed her.

Eventually, though, Kate was the one that managed to track her down, frowning to herself when she saw the state K was in as she slipped over to curl up with her. "So, Kurt kissed me," she said, simply because she knew K needed something to focus on.

"Well that's not really a shock," K replied, hugging her knees tighter.

"But he's not  _my_ Kurt," Kate said.

"You're right. Totally inappropriate. You should backhand him for being fresh."

Kate let out a sigh as she dropped her shoulders and snuggled in. "I kind of should. I'm a married woman. But it's Kurt?" She pulled her arms around K's waist. "I hate time travel."

"Yeah, well. Badly-timed time travel is the worst," K said before she gestured to her chest. "Stupid flannel won't fit right now. Such. Timing."

Kate sat up a little straighter and sized K up, one eye closed critically. "I'll swap you shirts," she offered. "I'm taller than you, probably a size up. And mine's a tee shirt."

"Gonna start all kinds of rumors if anyone catches us switching shirts …"

"Yeah, well, we've already made plans for our wedding announcement, so I'm not too worried," Kate said, already starting to shimmy out of her shirt.

"Okay. but I'm sorry that it's not your color," K said, following suit. "Brown isn't going to do much for you, is it?"

"That's fine. I'm getting more attention in this universe than I want right now," Kate said. "Does it count as cheating? I feel like it does."

"I don't know. I'd advise you to ask a priest, but I'm pretty sure I know how the answer would come back."

"Well, I'll just talk to Kurt when we get back —  _my_ Kurt," Kate said with a decisive little nod. "I mean, it shouldn't count.  _I_ didn't kiss him. Right?"

"No. Clearly, it was assault."

Kate let out a long sigh. "He's just such a flirt in this universe and ours."

"And every other one …"

"We need to find this one a Kate, stat, because I think I started something," Kate said, shaking her head. "I told Nate to get on it."

"Then he can find her," K said, pulling the tee a little bit. "Well. At least I'm covered."

Kate smiled at her friend and framed her with a box made out of her fingers. "Yeah, we need to get you back to James and better-fitting flannel ASAP."

"The flannel would fit  _fine_ if I had James," K pointed out, then let out a huff when she gave up trying to hide that part of her figure. "Did Scott have a plan yet? It looked like he was going to break something, but you know, since I'm done with what he needed me for? I'm out of the loop."

"It sounded to me like they were going to go get Hank."

"Yeah, gonna need him if she wants to walk again," K said with a little scowl.

"So I think… we're just waiting for him to get here — and then you might be able to help with her reactions. I mean… if it was you… how would you react?"

"To them? After the back and forth they've had?" K shrugged her shoulders up. "Run."

"Probably why we're still here, then," Kate said.

She frowned at that though. "Why? If she runs, she's out of their way anyhow." K shook her head. "One thing that will probably always ring true with any 'me' — I won't stay where I'm not wanted."

Kate nodded. "Well, I think this 'you' would live a sad life if she never got to have her Logan, but that's just me," she said. "I'm not saying today, but…"

"I was doing  _fine_ before him," K said.

"Yeah, but 'fine' is one thing. And you two are just… meant for each other," Kate said. "You're so happy, K."

"In  _that_ time or reality or whatever." She shook her head and waved one hand. "This isn't the same kind of guy."

"Then maybe Nate wants us to keep her around so she can give them some intel to bring down the rest of the baddies. I dunno," Kate said with a shrug.

"Probably," she muttered, pulling her knees up again. "Pretty sure I can get it out of her."

Kate nodded and rested her head on K's shoulder. "For the record,  _I_ want you around. Just in case you needed the reminder."

"I need to get this fiasco over with," K said. "I don't think I like these people very much."

"I like them," Kate said. "And I think they're warming up to you."

"You like everyone," she grumbled.

"That's not true. I can't  _stand_ my in-laws," Kate said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

"Well that's only because they're monster-in-laws," K said. "Anything above that, you try to charm. Which is why you have a spritely young Elf trying to get in your pants."

"He  _needs_ a Kate, K," Kate said sincerely.

"Do you want me to be all territorial, sweetheart?" K teased.

Kate couldn't help but laugh at that. "Maybe you should."

"Only works if I scare him," K pointed out. "And he attacked me on sight, so I don't think it'll work very well."

Kate let out a sigh. "You're right, of course," she said. "And I don't want you to scare him. He  _is_ Kurt. Just… younger and in a different world." She tipped her head back. "I had this same problem with Older Kurt when we went time traveling. I can't resist an Elf."

"You're Elf-nip, that's what you are," K said with a little smile. "On the other hand ... I think I have the opposite effect on … everyone."

"I think Jean likes you," Kate pointed out.

"Jean is amused by the idea," she argued. "She has a sick sense of humor."

"You helped to save her blue-eyed husband," Kate countered. "Puts you in good books."

"We'll see," she said with a sigh, resting her head against Kate's for a few long moments. "I think I need some air." K unfolded her legs and stretched out a little bit. "You … just play referee and try to get young Kurt to keep his fuzzy lips to himself. Think you can do that?"

"I'll try very hard," Kate said. "I think I put him off anyway when I sort of… ran away."

"Well good for you. Run, baby, run. Run fast." K got to her feet and offered Kate a hand up. "You go first. I doubt they'll want me to go anywhere but deeper into the building."

"I still think they're warming up to you," Kate said. "You haven't tried to stab any of them, and you saved the boss man — gotta be a good thing, right?"

"Oh, sure, sure. Yeah, we're due for a one-eighty any second. But until that happens, I really do need some air. And a moment alone." she rested her hand at her throat. "You know. Before I have a small breakdown."

"You know where to find me if you need hugs," Kate said. "Running from the frisky Elf."

"Right. I'll listen for the breaking heart," K promised, though she did gesture for Kate to go first. "I'm just going to sneak around the rest of them and get to where I can feel a breeze."

Kate nodded at that and then went ahead and gave K another hug, just to remind her friend that she wasn't alone, before the two of them parted ways, with Kate halfway reluctant to find the others when she  _still_ didn't know how to handle seeing Kurt… when he wasn't Kurt.

She let out a sigh and leaned against the wall, "I hate time travel," she muttered to herself at last before she finally got up her courage to go join the X-Men — though she would be more diligent about not letting this world's Kurt steal any more kisses this time.


	5. The Things They Don't Tell You

K hadn't been sitting at the entrance to the hidden compound for too long before Jean called out to her. "You're not going to disappear, are you?" she asked as she carefully made her way closer.

K looked over her shoulder and watched her approach, gently shaking her head 'no'. "If I disappear, it'll just be harder to get back to my own time," K pointed out. "But there's no reason to make everyone uncomfortable while I  _am_ here. I can keep out of the way."

Jean shook her head as she made her way closer to sit across from the little feral. "The memories you have of your time ... and your place on the X-Men … they're extraordinary."

K turned her way and watched her silently for a moment. "But you're not here to pick my brain about the X-Men, are you?"

"No," Jean admitted, blushing high on her cheeks until the tips of her ears were red. "We don't have much experience with little ones, and the pictures that Kate showed me … and your memories …"

"You want a crash course on what to expect?" K asked, sounding perfectly surprised as she turned toward her slightly and opened up her body language to the redhead.

Jean nodded her head with a little 'mmhmm' before she gestured toward K with one hand. "I caught part of what's bothering you. Your friend projects a lot. Nate is mortified. He had no idea that taking you would cause you trouble connected to your little boy.… He didn't know."

K nodded. "I figured as much." She glanced down at her chest and then up at Jean. "It's not like they really tell women what's coming until you're already facing it, so it's not … I don't know why it isn't talked about. The things that happen to us after having a baby." K closed her eyes and shook her head. "And if the women don't know ahead of time, you know damn well the men don't."

"We haven't seen Hank in a while. I thought we'd be able to talk with him when the time came …"

"Henry is a wonderful resource on development and how the clinical things work, but everything else is glossed over with the 'it's unique to each mother' phrase that every doctor says," K told her. "I think it's their cheap way of saying they don't have any idea." K leaned forward. "I can tell you what the after was like for me, but Kate would have a more relatable experience, I think." Jean frowned at that for just a moment, but K gave her a resigned sort of smile. "I have to do surgery every time," she explained before Jean could ask. "The metal doesn't exactly make it possible — so if it's birth questions, I can't really help you. Kate was a rockstar, though."

"I'm … more curious about the after, honestly," Jean said.

"Again … Kate would be a better resource, I think," K said. "My healing zipped me through it. I was back to wearing my own clothes in a couple hours. It's … the whole nursing issue that's giving me trouble. And the hormones, of course — because  _that_ doesn't back off." She sighed and stared out into the night for a few moments. "If you really want to know, you're more than welcome to take a peek. Just … I'd  _prefer_ you had them tie my hands while I'm somewhere other than in the general gathering area."

Jean looked shocked for a moment and frowned, shaking her head. "No … that's not …"

"It triggers a severe fight or flight with so many around me that don't want me here," K said, almost scowling at her.

"No, I meant …  _no_. That's not … I wasn't going to let them do that. At all."

"It's fine," K promised. "They're just following their instincts. I'm just pointing out I have my own I have to follow. Even if no one here has seen the proof of it."

"I've seen it," Jean said with a grin. "In your mind and Kate's, and in Nate's too. Your little girl is your spitting image, and your son … he already resembles Logan so strongly." She looked like she was almost set to tear up. "I want our Logan to have that. He seems so  _happy_  in your time."

"He is," K replied quietly. She frowned to herself and pulled her knees up to her chest, again unconsciously making herself smaller. "I don't know what the guys have planned at this point. But if you need help getting through to the other me … just give me a minute, okay?"

Jean nodded wide-eyed for a moment, still not used to seeing K like this — though really, she wasn't alone. And not just with those that were supposed to be there. Jean watched as Kate made her way closer — obviously having come looking for her friend and fellow time traveller. "Is everything alright?" Kate asked as she seemed to throw caution to the wind and head right over to sit with K.

"Of course it is," K said gruffly, then cleared her throat. "Jean was just picking my brain on what it's like to have a little one on the way. She and Scott are toying with the idea, but with competent doctors few and far between ..." K shrugged and began to slowly stretch her legs out in front of her. "She should probably talk to someone who doesn't do the recovery in fifteen minutes flat." She gave Kate a look and tipped her head toward Jean. "Why don't you girls get acquainted? I'd like to stay, but I should probably hit a hot shower again. It helps. A little." She gestured down at herself and gave them a tight smile before she left the two of them — not that they were going to stay there long.

As soon as K was out of sight, Kate turned to look at Jean and let out her breath, shaking her head. "I'm going to sound so much like one of those moms at church that I want to hit, but as much as the hormones and the nursing and the recovery and the  _labor_  sucks? If you're thinking about it, and you want a little one, you should go for it anyway," she said. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Kurt and I want another one, and believe me, when the couple fighting off a demon grandfather is willing to go again, you know it's worth it, as cheesy as that sounds."

Jean smiled lightly at Kate. "I know," she said. "All of the memories you have of the little ones you have…"

"Scott is  _such_ a puddle around babies," Kate couldn't help but say, her grin turning a little more crooked. "When you get there? It'll be amazing."

Jean had to laugh at that, though she was watching the spot where K had retreated. "We'll get you back soon," she said softly.

"Yeah, I'm not really sure what it is Nate's waiting for," Kate admitted.

"Logan," Jean said in a sigh. "He hates to be rescued, and he knows they were hurting Scott because of him — to get to him." She held up a hand before Kate could say anything. "And yes, that is his problem, but Nate…" She smiled affectionately. "He wants our Logan to be as happy as yours — or as close to it as possible."

Kate couldn't help but giggle. "Cable the romantic."

Jean laughed too. "Something like that," she said. "At the very least, after everything I've seen of your world, I have to agree with him: it would be a shame not to at least try."

Kate nodded. "Well, if that's what you're waiting for to get K back to her family…" She trailed off. "Logan thinks I'm insane, though. It won't be as easy as telling stories to Kurt."

"Kurt's positively enchanted with you," Jean said with a laugh.

"Hopefully, the me in this universe is just as enchanting," Kate said, blushing slightly. "I really didn't mean to—"

Jean waved her hand. "He does feel bad for upsetting you."

"But not for kissing me," Kate said, and she couldn't quite help but smile, even though she thought she probably shouldn't.

"No, but then, like I said, he's enchanted," Jean said as the two of them headed back to where the others were gathered.

"Now if only Logan were that easy."

Jean snerked. "Logan, easy?"

"I know, as soon as the words came out of my mouth, I decided they were wrong," Kate giggled, though her hand went to her pocket. Her cell phone was only at about half power at this point, and this world didn't have a charger for the technology. But a plan was forming in the back of her mind that she knew she didn't have much of a window for.

Still, though, she turned to Jean and gave her a warm smile. "If you want, you can go through my memories of what it was like — the whole baby thing," she offered, gesturing toward a spot where the two of them could sit together. "I really don't mind, and it might be easier than trying to talk to K when she's missing her son." She didn't raise her voice more than her normal talking level, though she knew that Logan couldn't have missed it. But she was getting better at her poker face, and besides, the grateful sort of smile on Jean's face, despite the blush when she heard Kate's thoughts on how Logan was smirking over Jean's curiosity, was enough to get Kate to smile honestly anyway. No need for the poker face.

Of course, Kate couldn't have known that Jean was blushing for more than just curiosity — or that Logan knew it too. And for as much as he was in his head, he couldn't help the smirk when he heard that Jean was reaching out to learn more about what she was in for. Even if he still wasn't too sure about the newcomers Nate had brought to the group.

The two women sat together for a long moment as Kate let Jean look through her memories of the whole thing — not just the "big" things like Azazel's interest and Krissy's dramatic, quick arrival, but the little things like how thirsty Kate always felt and how she had been embarrassed when nursing didn't seem to come "naturally" to her. No one had told her that it was hard, something she'd have to learn to do.

There were a lot of "no one told me" moments like that, and while Jean had at first thought she'd just do a quick glance through, the two of them ended up sitting together for longer than they anticipated, Jean's curiosity driving her forward.

Eventually, though, Jean did leave Kate's memories and then gave Kate a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Hey, us girls have to stick together," Kate said with an easy smile. "Right?"

Jean smirked. "Right," she said, then looked over to where Scott was watching the two of them with one eyebrow raised.

Kate could tell that the two of them were having a telepathic conversation when Jean blushed slightly at whatever it was Scott had said, so she squeezed Jean's arm and got to her feet. "Go make over your husband," she said, then projected out,  _After all, if you want kids, there's a whole step you kinda can't skip. It's fun, I promise._

Jean shook her head at Kate, but since Kate was already headed over to Logan, she got to her feet to kiss Scott and let him in on  _some_ of what she'd been talking about with Kate.

Kate made her way over to Logan, phone in hand, with a picture of Logan, K, Elin, and John right after John was born already pulled up for him. "I know you don't care much for me, but I need you to look at this," she said, shoving it at him. "Please. It's important to me," she added, her tone as open as possible.

Logan rolled his eyes as he turned his attention her way. "Why?"

"Because I want to go home," Kate told him honestly. "Please?"

Logan looked weary for a moment. "That's not my call. You wanna go home — go."

"We still have things to do," Kate said. "And I'm a Hawkeye. I don't get to duck out just because I'm homesick. So please,  _please_ just do me this favor," she said.

"And you think showin' me a buncha pictures from an entirely different reality is going to make a difference."

"It's a running theory," Kate said. "And it's worth trying."

"Will you go away when that doesn't work?" Logan said with a little glare.

"If you will look at these pictures and you still hate me, I promise, I will stay on the other side of the room for all the time I'm still here," Kate said, one hand over her heart.

"I don't hate you; I just don't trust you."

"Promise still stands," she said.

"Fine," Logan growled out as Kate did her best not to bounce over and hand him the phone — though she handled flipping through the pictures as Logan didn't change his expression through her little slideshow.

She had pictures from the one of the whole Howlett family that morning all the way back to the weddings, and by the time she was through, she was biting her lip and halfway holding her breath. "Okay," she said in a breath of a whisper. "I can go stand in the corner now…"

Logan gave her a dry look. "There's nothing in common here, kid."

"I don't know; your Kurt already tried to make a pass at me," Kate admitted with a small smile.

"He's a romantic."

"He really is," Kate said, not even bothering to hide her tone of affection.

He gestured to her. "That … isn't helping your case with him either."

Kate sighed. "I know. I'm … trying? I was an Avenger before I was an X-Man. Time travel is still new to me, okay?"

Logan let out a sigh, trying to channel some patience. "You're talking about entirely different people. Maybe your version of K is a decent person, ours … is not."

"Maybe," Kate conceded. "But I also know about the Department and what they did to  _you_ , too." She bit her lip. "I don't know how much of that happened in this universe, but … I know you didn't have a say in it. And those scars are recent for us in our universe from the Department coming after both of you… I just want to make sure an innocent woman doesn't get crucified for being used.  _If_ it's the same thing. If it's not, I won't stand in your way."

"And that's what we're waiting to find out," Jean cut in. "If she won't open up her mind and  _invite_ me in, it's going to be hard to find out otherwise."

Kate nodded, still chewing on her bottom lip. "Like I said, I'm just… I stand by the innocent until proven guilty thing. Including cases of control and brainwashing and torture and all that crap."

"Considering how much she could reason and logic for her own, I'm not convinced," Logan said.

"You can't reason with him," Jean said. "I thought you said you knew him?"

"I do," Kate said, her lip poked out in a frown. "But my version is one of my best friends, and I just sort of… tackle and tease him? The hands-off approach is new to me?" She gestured to her phone. "Thus the visual aids?"

Jean came over and put an arm around Kate's shoulders to steer her away from Logan.  _He's in a mood. He's got to be thinking it all over; it just … severely clashes with what he knows._

 _Yeah, I was kinda hoping for shock therapy, honestly,_ Kate admitted.  _Hey, look, you have the second-cutest family in the world. Mine being the first, obviously. I mean. Kurt._

_I don't know … cute as they are, your world's version of Logan's family is kind of … disturbingly sweet._

_They are, aren't they?_ Kate asked, even her mental tone affectionate and somehow smug at the same time.  _Hug magnets._

"Oh, honey, you can't say that out loud here," Jean laughed, though she made a point to give Logan a look as they headed over to Scott.

"But it's true, even if I don't say it," Kate grinned widely.

 _We'll just have to give them a little push and see how true that is,_  Jean projected back.

 _You know it's true,_ Kate said, grinning wider.  _Come on._

Jean's expression was amused — but not so much that it gave away what she was thinking.  _I can't weigh in on that, but I do like your K._

 _I'm hoping yours is like her,_ Kate said with a little nod.  _Because if she is… those two are an unstoppable force._

 _This will be over for you two in no time if she is,_ Jean agreed.

Kate grinned at Jean.  _Oh yeah. I like you._


	6. The Boys Are Cute No Matter Where Or When They Are

It had taken a little longer than the X-Men expected to get Hank so that he could take a look at their captured K. He had been busy himself with some Sentinels that had come after the little group he was in charge of, and by the time the group came back, it had already been long enough that Kate's K was moving past the point of discomfort into downright miserable and angry about it.

Judging by the expression that Cable was wearing, he was entirely apologetic about not understanding how it could be not just uncomfortable but painful for the new mom to be separated from her baby for so long.

K was right on the edge of a growl all the time, and she was beginning to try to distance herself from the others, even Kate. Of course, Logan's paranoia wasn't helpful at all. But the images that Jean had projected to him of both Kate and K's memories of K and Logan together in their time had his interest piqued. And that wasn't even touching the curiosity about the pictures he'd seen of him meeting his daughter and son …it had him  _thinking_ of the possibilities at least. Especially since even after all that the two strangers had been through, he could still catch the scent of the newborn on her — and traces of himself and what he was guessing was their little girl.

It was distracting. And it was forcing him to pay attention to her in a light that wasn't entirely that of threat containment. He was noticing that  _this_  K moved a little differently — and not only because of the fact that she  _should_ be home, nursing her son. She moved in a more relaxed manner, even when she was tense. And she had little habits that he'd either never seen from their K — or they were things that their K didn't do. Thing like the way she would almost compulsively smooth the fabric over her stomach or the thighs of her jeans — as if that would be enough to straighten it out. Or how she would braid and unbraid her hair when she was distracting herself, only to fiddle with the end of it. Or the way she bit her lip after taking a drink.

But Logan certainly wasn't telling anyone what he was thinking, and for how much he was starting to hover around her, K wasn't very happy with him. She knew he didn't trust her, and she knew he was watching her, waiting for her to do something to double cross them. She paused and looked over her shoulder only to find that, yes, he was within easy distance for him to dart forward and catch her if she tried anything. It had her working her jaw slightly, and it didn't help at all that the few times that Logan wasn't hovering nearby, he was with Scott, their heads together as they quietly plotted.

Maybe it was paranoia. Or hormones. Or just the fact that she didn't like being on this side of Logan one bit. But she was ready to start looking for her own way home — and to hell with these people.

"K, we could use your insights for this mission," Cable said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She glanced up at him and could't quite rein in the growl that escaped her lips as she rolled up to her feet from where she'd been sitting against the wall away from the group. He frowned slightly, noting the more smooth, connected means of moving that she was shifting into — a clear sign that she was pushing closer to the edge of a feral break. And he wasn't the only one that saw it either. Logan was on her tail in a heartbeat — just a step back from her, close enough that a sudden stop had him standing close enough behind her that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

K let out a sigh and turned to look at him for a moment before very clearly rolling her eyes and stalking toward where Scott was working out an infiltration with his team. She crossed her arms again — a little tighter this time — shrugging the shoulder nearest Logan up to her ear when he stepped closer to see what was going on.

He wasn't going to quit shadowing her. And with as tense as she was, he was only going to get worse. To top it off, the few times she'd opened her mouth, he'd been sure to contradict her, so she was understandably irritated at being anywhere near him.

"I'd like your thoughts on this building," Scott said as K finally got all the way up to the table. "It's a known facility that Nate says you have experience with."

K scowled on seeing the maps, nodding to him before she let out a sigh and leaned forward, her hands on the edge of the table as she slowly took it in, looking for discrepancies from what she knew, though it wasn't long before Logan was shadowing her moves again. And this time, he didn't even attempt to pretend like he didn't realize how close he was when her back stiffened up at his lack of respect for her personal space.

K tightened her mouth and blinked a few times as she centered herself enough to at least try to ignore him. She drew in a deep breath and then closed her eyes for a moment, reminding herself that this Logan was going to be of no help to her or her nerves. "Okay. All of these places are designed to make you go through one or two points — or think that those are the only entryways. They don't trust their scientists and soldiers any more than they trust anyone else, so this … here—" She pointed to the way that the only visible entries were placed. "—is just their way of funneling people. Whenever you see this — now and in the future — look for the most awkward point on the design, and that's most likely where you'll find the secret entry point that is usually used by the top guys in charge."

"I thought you knew your way around," Logan said just over her shoulder, and she glared at the map, though she didn't turn to address him face to face.

"I do," she said patiently. "But I'm not going to stick around here forever." She finally turned to look over her shoulder at him. "So you should know how to get in."

"What makes you think I don't know?" Logan challenged, a little irritated that they needed her help to begin with on this.

"Aside from the fact that they're not asking  _you_?" She smirked and turned to face him fully. "Because every single time you've been tangled up in those places, the only way you went out of their buildings was either busting yourself out — through the most obvious exits — or when they were controlling you and didn't let you see."

"But  _you_ were allowed to walk free."

"I don't think having Sabretooth refusing to take his hands off me while steering me through those places counts as 'free'," she pointed out before she turned around again and went back to showing them their best exit and entry points until Scott simply handed her a red pencil to mark them on the map while Scott began to strategize.

The objective was straightforward, even if the mission itself couldn't possibly be. The X-Men knew where the Sentinels were being programmed, and with K no longer an obstacle and Logan freed, they knew they weren't going to get a better chance to get in there and cut off one of the major sources of headaches they had in that world.

And the more K saw of the map, the clearer it was to her that not only had she been in that facility before — but that she'd taken it apart herself a time or two.

K had frowned through their discussion of affairs, almost ignoring what was being said as she finally picked up the pencil again to make a few notations on the map to show the cameras. But as she was putting pencil to paper, Logan reached past her and took a hold of her wrist, physically stopping her from doing so.

She let out a derisive noise, then pulled her wrist away from him, breaking the hold he had a lot quicker and more seamlessly than they were used to seeing from her as she growled at him. "What is your problem?"

"What the hell are you marking now?" he asked, eyes narrowed, and K let out a sound of pure disbelief at how pigheaded he was being.

"They wanted my help. So why don't you back off and let me help," K said. "Like it or not, I know what I'm doing. I don't care if you don't trust me — or whatever your  _defect_ is in this reality. This is so incredibly  _frustrating_ when I can't just ... " She let out another frustrated sound with both of her hands out as if she wanted to strangle him and instead pushed him hard enough to get him to step back. "I am  _done_ with your attitude. Just … keep it to yourself." She glared at him hard before she turned back to what she was doing — but of course, he couldn't let that stand.

"You're not makin' much of a case for me to back off with that attitude, lady," Logan grumbled, not hiding the growl that was lacing his tone.

"Logan, stop," Scott said, his tone clearly a warning shot, and one that got Logan to stow the growl though instead, he leaned in even closer to K, subtly getting a better scent off of her as she started to growl right back at him.

"Don't know why you're worried about gettin' on her bad side. Not like she wouldn't turn on you in a heartbeat," Logan muttered only loud enough for K to hear. She tried to relax, knowing that he  _wanted_ her to lash out.

When she leaned back again to get him to move, she bumped into him when he stood his ground. But that really didn't give her any room to go forward either. "You're making it really hard for me to be this close to you," K finally said, turning on the spot to face him, her chin jutted out in a clear challenge.

"Yeah?" he replied, still intent on pushing her a little further — and honestly a little surprised that she hadn't already attacked him. "Figured if you knew me well enough, you'd know how to get me to back off."

"Oh,  _I know how_ ," K replied, still growling at him. "But I don't want to take that route."

"Why's that?" Kurt asked, entertained, but also not discounting the fact that the K from their universe had gotten too close to Logan once before with a fake sincerity. "Would you rather fight?"

"She knows better'n that. Sooner or later, she's gonna slip, and I'm gonna catch 'er," Logan said. "But I'm not lettin' her do anything here without a babysitter."

"Logan … you don't know what you're saying," Jean cut in, trying to get him to think about what he was doing.

"Would you just … step.  _Back,_ " K said, still facing him, but of course, Logan refused to budge, which really had them almost nose to nose. "You're making this difficult for no real reason. And I can't even get you to shut up like I normally would."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Logan said, watching her hands as she flexed them at her sides. He was sure she was ready to attack, and K was more frustrated than she could remember being.

"Wanna bet," K said from between her teeth, but that had Logan almost smirking and ready to fight. "You're not …" He smiled crookedly in a way that was a little too cocky for her liking, and as he drew in a breath for something obnoxious to say, she closed the distance and pulled him into a very long, very involved kiss that she didn't even consider letting end until he was pulling her closer and actively participating.

The room was silent, and when the kiss met its natural end, K simply spun in his arms, leaving him a little shell-shocked. "Now just … shut up, stand there, and be pretty," she said before she dove into her plotting again, not even thinking about looking his way as she went back to marking out the cameras.

Finally, Kurt was the one to break the silence when he simply couldn't keep from chuckling, and as soon as the spell had lifted, Jean joined in, completely entertained by this turn of events. Even Scott was struggling to keep from joining in, not nearly doing the job he thought he was doing looking like he was focused on the maps and not on keeping back the smile.

"And this is why she's ahead of everyone but the boss man in the baby department," Kate said under her breath — which really only made things worse. Kurt burst into an honest laugh, and Jean had to lean on Scott, totally tickled and not bothering to hide it.

"The hell's she talkin' about?" Logan said under his breath — though the only person close enough to catch it was K.

"It's an unfair marker," K muttered as she marked the last few cameras. "They have twins, but we've definitely got better-looking kids and don't need to  _try_ so hard."

Logan frowned slightly at that, but it was clear his entire body language had shifted.

And, at least, the extreme shift had seemed to have broken the mood that had settled over the group of them and definitely had Logan looking at K differently. So, once the X-Men had gotten their feet back underneath them and back to the maps, there was a distinctly different tenor to the discussions. Almost optimistic.

"You really do say the most amazing things," Kurt said, catching up to Kate in a poof of blue as the group started to disperse. They couldn't leave until the Sentinels in their area made one more pass, and in the meantime, it was clear Kurt was entertained — his swaying tail giving him away again.

Kate shook her head at him. "I must just come from the most amazing universe," she said with a shrug.

"That's part of it," Kurt said.

She shook her head at him. "You don't ever stop, do you?"

At that, Kurt had to laugh. "Well, here I am, faced with a beautiful woman who loves me — or some similar version of me — and who brings me the most outlandishly wonderful stories and hopes. What am I to do but fall for such a woman?"

"One the one hand, I want to argue with you, but on the other hand…"

"I'm so very right?" Kurt supplied for her with an easy smile.

Kate laughed. "Well, that too, but I was going to say after the display K and Logan just gave us, I don't really have much arguing room," she admitted, which had Kurt laughing all over again.

"I haven't seen that expression on Logan's face in some time."

"Surprised and totally turned on and yet somehow still suspicious?"

"Yes, that," Kurt chuckled.

Kate smiled. "It's a good look on him, I think."

"Oh, I absolutely agree," Kurt said, nodding seriously and offering her his arm as they walked.

Kate took the offered arm, but she did make sure to put a hand in the center of his chest to stop him as she looked him over critically. "All joking aside, you know that I'm not going to do anything to be untrue to  _my_ Kurt, don't you?"

Kurt watched her for a moment before the smile only seemed to somehow widen. "I must be very lucky in your universe, to have such a wonderful wife."

"And you know it, too," Kate said, smiling in spite of her best attempts to look serious.

"I should hope so," Kurt said. He watched her for a long moment, and Kate had seen the expression enough times to know that he wanted to kiss her.

She was completely prepared to turn him away, but instead of stealing a kiss outright, he simply raised her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.

"When we're through here and you have to return to your Kurt, I think I'll take some time myself to find the Kate that exists in this universe," he said, though he hadn't moved much from kissing her hand. "If she's anything like you are, I want to find such an angel."

Kate let out a little breathy laugh that she couldn't quite stop before she simply darted forward and kissed his cheek. "I hope you find her," she agreed. "I can't imagine a me without you."


	7. The Other Other Hawkeye

Kate woke up to the sounds of a lot of hurried movement — it was clear this universe's X-men were in a rush to do something. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, looking across the room to find that K wasn't in the bed she'd been using, though where she was had been answered pretty quickly when there was a shout from Storm that they needed to move.  _Now_.

The group was rushing out … and as Kate fell into step with the clearly evacuating group, the one thing that she noticed to be entirely out of place was the simple fact that the  _only_ K she saw was the anxious and ready to run K that  _belonged_ in this reality — tightly restrained and slung over Hank's shoulder as the group ran to get out.

"Move faster," Logan half snarled Kate's way, pushing hard himself to get going. He looked more ticked off than he had been before — and only after Kate did a quick once over of the people around her did she realize that K wasn't with them. At all.

"What happened?" she asked, though she poured on a bit more speed as the group went deeper into hiding.

"Your buddy stepped outside for a minute … Sentinel picked her up. Must have her DNA on file," Scott said over Kate's shoulder, his jaw unreasonably tight.

"We have to get her back," Kate said before she could even think about it, though Scott simply gave her a look that she was all-too-familiar with for that one, the kind of look that said he was already a step ahead of her.

She swallowed and let out a breath before she pointed a finger Nate's way. "If anything happens to her because of this,  _you_ get to explain it to Logan."

Nate gave her a look that was clearly genetic, considering the one Scott had just given her. "We're getting her back, Kate."

Kate huffed his way but simply turned to keep up with the rest of the group as they made their retreat. Hank had a hold of the other K to carry her out and away from the danger, but Kate didn't miss the fact that Logan was sticking close by as well to make sure that nothing  _else_ happened.

And she also didn't miss the way Scott, despite the fact that he was clearly still sore and hurting from his earlier stint as bait, was keeping Jean in front of him, carefully watching her in a protective way that Kate recognized.

She had to get K back to Logan —  _their_ Logan. He'd only just stopped making that face around her.

They traveled underground, through what was clearly a series of escape tunnels, until Storm finally signalled them to turn down a smaller path that seemed to lead slightly up, and they spilled out into what looked like a disused restaurant.

Kurt and Kitty quickly checked to make sure that they hadn't been followed, and Scott did a quick check of the perimeter before they even thought about relaxing — though with K still missing, that was a relative description.

"We have to go back for her," Kate breathed out as soon as she'd caught her breath.

"As soon as we know where they've taken her," Scott said. "We just destroyed their last holding place. This isn't like last time where we knew exactly where to go."

Kate let out a frustrated noise and paced a small path before Jean reached out gently to brush her mind.  _No one's giving up on her, Kate._

 _She wouldn't have been outside if you guys hadn't been treating her like crap,_ Kate snapped back, though when she saw Jean's wide eyes, she quickly backtracked.  _Jean, no… you've actually been really nice to her…_

Jean took a moment to close her eyes before she shook her head lightly.  _You're right. Logan has left us for that kind of thing. It's just sometimes hard to differentiate._

 _Yeah. I get that,_ Kate said, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was thinking of the hard time she had when it came to dealing with the different Kurts. She took a breath and looked over to where it looked like the other X-Men were having a meeting of the minds. "So… what's the plan?"

"Now, we wait to see where they'll take her," Scott said. "I'll let the other X-Men know to be on the lookout. Warren was closest to our position; he might have seen more than we did."

"And then what?" Kate said, her hands on her hips. "It's not like you've got K to walk you into the place this time!"

That earned her another dry look from Scott, though it was enough for Kitty to stop and pause, chewing on her bottom lip as she looked toward the K that they  _did_ have. "Maybe… we do," she said slowly, getting the rest of the group to turn toward her. "I mean, she was in  _this_ universe's facilities, right?"

"Hey, she's not wrong," Kate said, touching the side of her nose before she pointed at Kitty.

"With one crucial difference," Scott said with a serious frown, complete with his arms crossed. "Your K has your trust, and Nate went specifically to a universe where she was on our side."

"What makes you think this K won't help?" Kate asked, gesturing to the still-bound woman with one hand. "I mean, she's not with them anymore. You got her out. So…"

"So we still haven't determined everything that they did to keep her under control, and beyond that, we don't have any guarantee that she'd  _choose_ to be on our side," Scott said.

"Well, here's a novel idea," Kate said, matching his crossed-arms posture with her hip cocked. "How about instead of talking about her in the third person and assigning motives, we  _ask_ her?"

The look was back in full force as Scott shook his head at her. "I know that where you're from—"

"Scott, this isn't even about the differences in our universes and our Ks at this point," Kate said in a clearly frustrated tone. "This is about you guys being too scared to even  _try_ giving her a shot!"

"That's not—"

"Yeah?" Kate tipped her chin up. "Prove it."

"For what it's worth," Nate said, cutting in before the argument could go further downhill. "Of all the alternate realities I've seen, there were only a few where she honestly wasn't on the right side. And in none of those was she working for Weapon X."

Kate gestured wordlessly at Nate. "Yes. Good. Thank you, Cable."

"Of course, we'll need to get the controls  _out_ before we could even consider it," Hank added. "And I'm not sure how to do that on a healer with no inhibitor at our disposal."

Kate bit her lip and had to admit that it  _was_ a problem, so she simply sat down in one of the chairs at a table nearby. She wasn't happy with any of this, but at least she could tell that the rest of them were upset too. Too bad K wasn't there to see that they did, actually, care.

"Well, regardless of how that happens, we need to move," Kurt said, watching out of one of the windows warily.

"That's fine; we still have a few solid spots to lay low while we come up with a better plan," Scott said, gesturing for Kurt and Logan to lead the way to the next spot. It took some time — more than it would have if they hadn't been carrying their K and trying to avoid the ramped up patrols — even if the number of Sentinels out was drastically down.

"I guess there was more damage done than we thought," Ororo said with a satisfied kind of smirk.

"And you could fry them again if we weren't trying to be inconspicuous," Nate said.

"Of course," she replied with an understated sort of smirk.

When they did finally reach the small safe house, Kate was relieved to see that it was a little better reinforced than a closed-down old restaurant. In fact, she couldn't quite help the smirk when she recognized the place in Bed Stuy that almost felt like home again — only without all the people in it and distinctly devoid of Russians.

She was smiling to herself by the time a familiar blond archer poked his head out of the door — though Clint was younger than he had been when Kate met him. He didn't seem to notice her as he waved the group in — until they were all in the entryway and he gave her a disbelieving sort of "Katie?"

Kate blinked. "Clint?"

"I thought I told you not to come down 'til the coast was clear," he said in a tone that Kate just wasn't used to hearing from him. Almost parental. Which was  _so_ beyond weird. To make things weirder, he gestured to K. "This is above your head right now!"

"Oh, I don't even know where to start on the list of things that are so wrong here," Kate said, shaking her head. "Starting with probably don't call me  _Katie_."

"Do you mind havin' your little lover's quarrel somewhere else?" Logan deadpanned.

Kate and Clint both pulled spectacular faces, though Clint took it a step further with, "Can you not? This is my little sister."

Logan stopped and turned, his eyes narrowed as he looked them both over. "Oh sure. I should have seen the resemblance."

"Foster care," Clint said, waving a hand before he turned back to Kate. "You  _said_ you'd wait upstairs."

"Okay, first of all, when have I ever done what you say?" Before Clint could answer, Kate shook her head. "And second of all, wrong Kate — I came with Cable. Hi!" She waved with the tips of her fingers.

"You got an open room we can use?" Logan said, ignoring the look of confusion on Clint's face. "We have work to do."

"Right, yeah," Clint said, blinking for a moment before he turned back to the group at large. "Got a few rooms set aside. Stark wired one up for her." He tipped his head to K. "No transmissions in or out. You know. Paranoid Stark, always the same, keeps us alive."

"Sounds like the one we want," Logan said. "Point me."

Clint led the way to the third floor, where as promised, Tony was waiting to greet the group and make sure everything — and everyone — stayed aboveboard. He frowned at the restrained K as she passed and shook his head.

"You having a word with her? Because I kinda want to know how she got into half my systems."

"You can ask her," Logan said. "But I doubt we'll get through to her until we deal with the control system in her head. Got any bright ideas, short of takin' it off?"

"Well, what kind of control are we talking here? Macro? Micro?" Tony leaned forward with his hands in his pockets.

Logan let out a noise of irritation. "Hell, I don't know; ask Hank." He gestured to Hank, who was already pulling out the simple X-rays they'd taken.

And while Tony and Hank put their heads together, Kate slipped over to stand by Kurt with a troublemaking smile. "Found Kate," she sang out half under her breath. " _Voila_."

Kurt had to shake his head at that, though he was wearing an even more troublemaking expression than Kate's, if that was possible. "If you had told me you were Hawkeye's younger sister—"

"Oh, no. See, no. Not in my universe. No. He's like… my annoying older mentor? But not… no," Kate said, pulling a face with one eye closed in a wince.

Kurt had to laugh at her expression — and then even more when he noticed Clint watching the two of them with a suspicious sort of glare. "I don't think he believes you're not his sister," he teased.

"Well that's his own stupid overprotective problem," Kate said before she let out a sigh and crossed the room to hit Clint in the shoulder. "Stop looking like that. I'm not your sister, and even if I was, I'd have every right to talk to cute boys, so just put your face away."

Clint crossed his arms and glared her way, and Kate let out a sigh before she grabbed him by the arm. "Come on. Let's go find your Kate so you can see with your own Hawk-eyes that there are two of us. And then you should really let her come and play with the big kids because  _excuse you_ why aren't you letting her be part of the fun?"

"What part of this is fun?" Clint had to ask.

"Kicking butt, taking names, and doing it in Hawkeye style. Come on, Clint," Kate said without missing a beat. "You're less fun in this universe, clearly."

"Probably because I have to spend most of my time watching out for my kid sister," Clint shot back, though there wasn't any real heat to it.

Kate couldn't help but smile his way for that one before she waved Kurt over. "Come on, Kurt. Come meet the other me!" she sang out, shooing Clint forward with both hands.

Clint still didn't exactly look like he trusted the situation, but at Kate's insistence, they headed upstairs to where the other Kate was doing some stretches that looked a lot like what Kate had seen Clint do when she asked him about growing up in the circus. Which, she supposed, made sense if this Kate had Clint for a brother.

The other Kate straightened up when she saw the newcomers and scrunched up her entire expression. "Okay. So. There's a second me? Did we decide to play with, I dunno, telepaths or shapeshifters or something because this is kinda weird."

Kate couldn't help but nod her agreement. "Yeah, it's much weirder in person than when it's happening to other people," she decided.

But on the plus side, Clint seemed decidedly more relaxed as he gestured between the two Kates. "So. Katie, meet Kate, I guess. Cable brought her over from a different world."

"Cool," Katie said, smiling up at her doppleganger.

"And this is Kurt," Kate put in helpfully, not even bothering to hide her little crooked grin. "He's a dashing X-Man, and we get along  _great_ where I'm from, so…"

Katie tipped her head to the side before she stuck out her hand to shake Kurt's. "Okay, well, nice to meet you, Kurt. Nothing like people trying to push you into something, huh?" she said with a smirk.

But at that, Kurt simply laughed and took her hand — though he didn't shake it, instead kissing the back of her hand in a deep bow. "I'm delighted to meet you," he said, barely looking up from her hand with a grin that showed his teeth.

Clint took a step forward, but Kate put out a hand to block him. "Oh, calm down. He literally does that to any pretty girl. He's a sweet little Catholic boy; I wouldn't inflict someone horrible on  _myself_. Get real."

Clint gave her a dry look. "You can't just show up here and turn everything upside down."

"Clearly, I can," Kate said before, just to make things worse, she called out to Katie: "Oh, did I mention he grew up in a circus?"

Katie's eyebrows shot up, and her smile turned more genuine. "No way. Clint and I joined up when we were kids!"

Kurt's tail was clearly showing how thrilled he was with this turn of events. "I was in the circus since I was a baby — why don't you tell me how you found it?" he asked, leading her by the hand to sit on the couch and grinning widely as the young woman all but bounced over with him.

Kate couldn't stop grinning as she watched her other self and the other Kurt as Katie relayed how she and Clint had run away when she was barely old enough to remember it — how Clint had protected her through all of it: the circus, the Swordsman, the Sentinels…

"I'll get you back for this somehow," Clint muttered Kate's way.

"Oh, get over it, Clint," Kate said, waving her hand his way. "You should be thanking me. I am saving you  _so_ many headaches if she was headed toward my dating decisions. I mean, I had an intergalactic conqueror of worlds and Magneto's grandson…"

"That does  _not_ make me feel any better about your taste," Clint said, his eyebrows nearly to his hairline.

Kate grinned outright and then held up her left hand to show him the ring. "Married an X-Man though. Figured it out in the end."

"Aww, Katie…"

Kate laughed outright and then popped up on her toes to kiss Clint's cheek. "Aww, love you too. Even if you are a weirdly protective big brother in his universe."

Clint shook his head at that, clearly with no idea what to do with Kate, before he jerked his head to the side. "Let's catch up with the others before they plan this whole thing without us, then."

Kate nodded sagely. "Yes. Best to leave these two to their own devices."

The look that Clint shot her was absolutely worth it, Kate decided as she fell apart laughing.


	8. Iron Hawk

Meanwhile, Hank and Tony had gone over the X-rays and discussed their options under Logan's watchful eye, though the K they had there had yet to say a word to anyone about anything at all as she watched the three men warily.

"So our options are … try to find a somewhat sterile lab and an inhibitor and get to work," Tony said. "… or … maybe make use of what we have here."

"I don't care how much she's stolen from you; we're not performing surgery without the proper set up, and certainly not while she's awake," Hank said in a flat tone.

"Not what I was suggesting, but any useability that might have had in an interrogation threat — you totally blew it, big guy," Tony said, clapping a hand on Hank's shoulder. "No. I meant we make use of  _everything_ we have at our disposal. Including your powersets." Tony gestured toward the closed door. "All of your power sets. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that lightning hasn't worked ... or you'd have fried her already, or … Storm would have, anyhow. And if it's mechanical like you say, then obviously, the telepath wouldn't work. But … what about your junior X-Man in training?"

"Kitty's not getting anywhere near her," Logan said, shaking his head slowly.

"Then the only other viable option you have if you're not going to just reach in and cut it out is the whole head removal thing. We don't have the materials to make an inhibitor, and you don't have access to surgical suites anyhow. Pick your battles," Tony replied. Logan and Hank shared a glance before Tony cut in again. "Listen. Obviously, the two of you have figured out how to hold her down at least. You should be able to keep her still while your ghost girl does her thing."

"What do I need to do?" Kitty asked as she finished phasing through the door. "I … might have been listening. Little bit."

Tony smirked and gestured openly for her to come closer — and within a few moments, Hank was explaining to her what she was looking at on the X-rays. Kitty looked a little nervous when she saw the extent of what they had to deal with, but the whole time, Logan was glaring at Tony, who couldn't have looked more smug if he'd tried.

"Okay, what stupid did you guys get up to while we were out for, like, a few minutes?" Kate asked, leaning in the doorway and smirking at the group.

Tony rested a hand over his heart. "What makes you think … no, little hawk," Tony said. "I was  _fixing_ their crazy X-Men mess."

"What's up, buttercup?" Kate asked, clearly in a good mood from her matchmaking.

"Isn't it bad enough that I have to put up with your circus ridiculousness on a regular basis? Now you're going to move on to  _more_ stupid nicknames," Tony said, more as a statement than a question.

"Ooh, now I want to know what those are," Kate laughed.

"Try 'Iron Hawk' on for size," Clint told her with a smirk.

" _No_ ," Tony said pointing a finger at Clint. "No. Just … no."

"You're the odd man out, Stark. Me and Katie already have ours. I  _offered_ you 'Iron Eagle' but you turned it down, so now you're stuck."

"I just don't see what's wrong with leaving it how it  _was,_ " Tony said. "I've got nothing to do with any … bird-brained lunacy."

"Yes," Kate said, straightfaced. "The guy who flies has nothing to do with birds."

"This is not up for discussion," Tony snapped.

Kate rolled her eyes before she tipped her head toward the others. "Seriously, though. What's the plan?"

"A very delicate and complex procedure in which a designated volunteer will endeavor to restrain our little friend so that our own Shadowcat can ever-so-carefully yank out the offending bits and pieces," Hank said. "With any luck, without accidentally removing her skeleton with it."

Clint let out a low whistle. "Oh, is that all."

"The other option on the table would be to hang around until I have the goods to make an inhibitor and … for them to find a surgical suite," Tony added. "I'm all for the first one."

"Same," Kate muttered.

"Then let's get down to business," Hank said, though he didn't look overly excited to get going. When Logan moved toward K, she did her best to skitter away from him, but being restrained, that wasn't too easy for her to do. It was just a matter of a little manhandling before he was holding her to the floor, face down, so she couldn't move — and Hank and Kitty could get started.

It wasn't something that was going to take too long, but once Hank made the cut at the base of her neck, those not needed for the procedure cleared the room and gave them space to work — especially since she was fully awake and not at all happy with what was happening.

No one quite knew what to say, but when it got incredibly quiet in the room where Hank and Kitty were working, they all started sharing glances before Jean cut in. "She'll heal quickly enough," she said, though she was a little shaky on saying as much. "Then maybe it won't be such a disaster to just … take a peek. I'm sure Nate and I can get the job done if she fights us."

"I thought it was hard for you guys to get in," Clint said with a frown. "That was the whole reason you couldn't just drop her, right/"

"It is," Jean said. "But after what she just had to go through? Anyone's defenses would be down."

Scott nodded at that. "Worth a shot."

"Which … won't be necessary if I'm right," Nate added. "Once the controls are gone, she should be at least open to the idea of helping."

Kate was nodding along to every word. "Yeah, for sure. Especially since  _my_ K was grabbed, and she's got a baby at home. I mean. Come on."

"That's hoping that  _our_ K will even care about that," Tony said, shaking his head. "I can't believe you went and brought another one here."

"She's hilarious, and you two tease each other mercilessly. You're hopelessly in love, but she's taken," Kate sang out Tony's way. "But if this one's anything like mine, the second she hears there's a kid involved…"

"Excuse me, no," Tony said, shaking his head at her. "And you don't know what this one is like … noobie."

Kate stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, have you tried  _asking_ her, smart guy?"

"Asking her what? So far, all she does is glare at everyone and try to bite!" Tony defended.

"Do you talk to her or about her? Think hard, Iron Hawk."

Tony glared at her for a moment. "Do not. Call me. Iron Hawk."

"I'm going to call you that back home and see what you do," she said before she turned to Jean. "Let me try talking to her. It's my friend on the line, and she hasn't ever been sent against me."

Jean thought about it and nodded her head. "That makes sense, but you know you'll need to go in with Logan. At  _least._ "

"I'm fine with that," she promised.

It wasn't much longer before Kitty phased through the door looking pale a few moments ahead of Hank opening the door. "That was a little more extensive than we thought," Hanks said, then looked over at Kate. "We're going to need to get to your friend sooner than later."

Kate's good mood from seeing Kurt and Katie together dropped with her smile as she nodded. "Right. Well. Can I talk to her?"

Hank gestured toward the door. "Be my guest."

Kate peeked her head into the room first and then tentatively walked in, frowning at the dazed K and the fact that she was pale and sort of curled in. Logan was watching nearby, and she tipped her head his way before she took a deep breath. "So… I know you don't know me, but my friend —  _you_ , but not, I guess — she's missing, and our best chance is you." Kate bit her lip. "She's already miserable, she just had a baby, and I just want to get her home. Can you help me?"

K glanced up at Kate, then took in the details of the room, but she didn't really answer her. "She's gonna bolt," Logan said.

Kate let her shoulders drop. "Please," she said quietly. "I just want my friend back."

Finally, K met her gaze and very gently shook her head.

"Jeannie," Logan called out. "If you got a plan — best to move on it."

Jean and Nate came in a short moment later, both of them frowning as they held a quick telepathic conversation between them and then simply dove in before K could fully regain her senses. As they got to work, Scott moved forward to pull Kate out of the room.

"We're not giving up on this one just yet. She's clearly in shock. Not the best time to get help from anyone," Scott said quietly.

"My K would do it," Kate said.

"Your K wasn't being mind-controlled for who knows how long," Scott pointed out. "Years at minimum." He let out a breath. "But Jean says a lot of the same personality is there. Just … very battered."

"It's just… the only other time I've time-travelled or dimension-hopped or whatever, she saved my life minutes after being freed from a demon's control," Kate said. "Didn't even hesitate."

"I don't know what to tell you, Kate," Scott said. "Was she surrounded by people that hated her? Because I'm sure that's a deciding factor."

Kate thought about it and then scrunched up her face. "Trying to decide if 'evil government organization' is worse than 'demon lord who takes over Earth and wants in her pants'..."

Scott couldn't help but smirk at that. "Well I think you have your answer," he said dryly.

"Yeah, definitely the demon," Kate said just as dryly, matching his tone precisely before she smirked up at him and bumped shoulders with him. "Right, boss man?"

"We'll get your friend back," Scott promised, though the smirk hadn't quite disappeared. "Jean and Nate are just about done now …"

Kate couldn't help but smirk up at him, her good mood returning simply because she needed to tease to stay away from getting too anxious. "Right. I keep forgetting about the whole Jean connection — and you come across as  _way_ more omniscient than I'm used to," she teased.

"I'm not sure if I should apologize or not," Scott said, still looking amused with himself.

"Well, that depends, because if you're going to start asking for blood sacrifices or something then, no, you shouldn't be pleased with yourself, and you should definitely calm down."

He frowned at that and turned her way fully. "What?"

"You know ... crazy omniscient god of… whatever, I was parodying bad Aztec 'B' movies," Kate said, waving her hand. "Watch  _Indiana Jones_  if it even comes out in this universe."

"Yeah, haven't had much of a chance to go to the movies," Scott said dryly. "Too busy running for our lives."

"Poor you," Kate sang to him with a smile before, just to do it, she popped up and kissed him on the cheek, which had him giving her another look that clearly said he still had no clue what to do with her.

When Jean came out a moment later, she looked as if she had tried to cram a few hundred pages of reading into a matter of a few minutes. "Okay. There is another facility. And it's not too far out ... we have to go south. And it's probably easier if I just … project it to everyone."

The gathered X-Men all seemed to simply nod along to that, but Tony held up one hand her way. "Oh no - wait. You need a warning before you just … do that."

And because the opening was so good, Clint couldn't help but needle him. "That was the warning, Stark. You just heard it."

Jean smirked at Clint for a moment and then closed her eyes before she pushed all of the intel she and Nate had gotten from K directly into everyone's minds. "He's right; you were warned," Jean said sweetly.

Tony gave her a dry look, though even Kate looked a bit staggered, unused to the full-bore telepathic share. She put a hand to her head and shook it hard. "Oh man. That is so different to when Rachel does it."

Jean and Scott both snapped their attention to Kate, looking openly shocked for a moment, but after a shared glance, they tried to brush it off. "Alright, so … let's set our teams up," Scott said after he cleared his throat slightly. "Chances are good the same tactic we used last time isn't going to cut it. For one, this K doesn't have the intimate knowledge of all of the sneakier exits — likely because she hasn't been able to escape. So we won't be able to go in like we own the place."

He let out a breath, steadying himself as he looked at the gathered group. "I'll need someone to cover our assets that will act as bait."

"Count me in," Kate said quickly. "They don't know me — I'm an unknown they haven't prepared for."

"Hey, wait, no; if Katie's going in, count me in," Clint said.

"Not your sidekick or your sister," she grumbled his way.

"Still look like her and act like her," Clint shot right back. "This isn't a debate, Katie."

"And Clint and I aren't mutants, so we shouldn't show up on their scanners," Tony added.

"Oooh, good point. I should have listed that in the reasons I should go," Kate agreed.

"Not what I was going for," Tony said without turning her way. "Point is: I'd like to get some insight on what they've been able to use from the tech that was ripped off." He turned to Scott. "If they have much of it in use, you're gonna need me to get you around it anyhow."

"So, who's the bait?" Kurt asked as he and the circus-Kate made their way to the group.

"Logan and Hank," Scott said. "We know they want Logan for the same work they have K doing ... or … had K doing; and Hank … well. Hank's a genius in genetics. We know he's at the top of their list for mutant acquisitions as well."

"That... is admittedly pretty good bait," Clint said.

"So … Hawkeye and his Hawk-ettes can cover your low-tech response service," Tony said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll check out what they have and hijack it. Got a few neat little tricks for their Sentinels that'll ground them and fry their circuit boards." He smirked at Scott. "Keep the fight a little fairer if you don't have to watch your back against giant robots."

"Just as well — because I'm not likely to stay behind, considering your bait and your forward force," Kurt said with one eyebrow raised.

"It's just me and this Kate," Clint said firmly.

Katie frowned at Clint. "I'm just as good a shot as you. And you heard them: they need humans who can slip inside."

"What's your big plan for the other K?" Logan asked. "Someone's gotta make sure she doesn't slip out while we're gone getting the one Cable brought."

"I'll keep her unconscious," Jean said. "Nate is more than capable of linking everyone up."

"Great." Kate clapped her hands together. "Then let's go. I don't want my friend getting one of those things in her head, please and thank you."

"Then we should move fast," Scott said. "Can only be a matter of time before they figure out there's a problem."


	9. Tony And K Can't Help Themselves

Of course, it hadn't taken K long at all to figure out it was in her best interests to  _not_ fight once she'd been picked up by the Sentinels for the flight to the new base. And on landing, she was positively cursing herself for not getting more information from Jean on how exactly this world handled her. She knew about the controls — and she knew that it couldn't be as advanced as some of the systems that were in development in her own time and space — but that didn't mean it wasn't fairly obvious that something was off as she was shepherded through the base by an armed escort who all looked wary of getting too close.

The first wave of real trouble came when she didn't know the protocol on how to respond when asked questions. Thankfully, the man in charge didn't seem too bothered or upset, even though K was tensed and ready to fight. Instead, he simply waved a hand, and the soldiers started pressing for her to move again — to a deeper level. But when she saw what had to be the reprogramming set up ... she knew that wasn't going to go well at all.

For one, she didn't have the hardware. So letting them even think they had a chance to program things ... that would have been giving up. So instead, she waited until the two soldiers approached her to take her arms before she flat out attacked — intent on trying to fight her way out if she could.

The soldiers kept on coming, and K's entire fighting style was obviously one they weren't prepared for as she cut through them, trying to get to the exit. There was an odd-sounding wave that echoed the room, and all of the soldiers seemed to be holding their breath — waiting for her to do something. But when she simply glared around at them and dove in again, the real panic started.

Alarms were going off, and the fresh wave of reinforcements started to shoot as she worked through them, though that was stacked so harshly against her it was really just a matter of time before she went down.

* * *

When she woke up, she was restrained and couldn't move her limbs, though as her eyes began to focus, she saw that one of the higher up soldiers was a little too close to be wise. As soon as he moved his hand a bit closer to her, she leaned over and bit down until her teeth met, catching him almost halfway between the wrist and elbow.

It took several of them to get her to let go, and when she finally did — aside from the colonel needing some medical intervention — the only thing she managed to hear was that they were only waiting on the device to finish uploading all the data before they got started. Not that it was a very comforting thing to hear.

One thing that was across the board upsetting was that none of them were even bothering to look her in the face as they went to work around her. Which was a bit worrisome if she was being honest. But amid the sounds of surgeons getting ready to do their job, she heard a distinctive, high-pitched whine off in the distance that had her frowning deeper to herself.

There was no way that was anything but a repulsor — but if Tony was on their side or not … she wasn't exactly holding her breath. She knew talking to these guys was a waste of time, and if they kept their strict 'no-looking at the girl,' then it was a real mark of how used to it they were anyhow. As she was trying to focus on  _anything_ else, there was a rather hollow-sounding  _thwack_ — and all of the doors, locks, and  _shackles_ popped open.

The doctors all froze and looked on the verge of a panic, but K simply popped her claws and made a mad dash for the door - slicing through anyone that got in her way. She was almost amused at how long it had been since she'd made a mad dash in a hospital gown, but it really wasn't the time or the place. At all.

As she worked her way out, she dodged and hid, cut through who she had to, and ended up going up several flights of stairs on her way up and out. The clinical-looking walls quickly gave way to a much richer and more lavish surrounding, but the guards were still there, so she wasn't planning on stopping any time soon.

She vaguely wondered why there weren't Sentinels rushing in, but again —  _don't look a gift horse in the mouth,_  she thought to herself, again rushing up some stairs that this time were roped off. She ducked into a room and flattened against the wall as the soldiers rushed by, but this room at least had a window. She looked out and saw that it was a few stores to drop, but it didn't look like there was an exit anywhere near where she was. So, she backed up and took a running leap, crashing through a window on the way out and fully expecting to hit the concrete below.

She did hit something hard, but it wasn't concrete — as a slightly less modern than she was used to Iron Man suit got there in enough time to stop her from hitting the ground.

"Listen, I've been informed by Clint's not-sister that you're not going to stab me, but if she's wrong, so help me, I  _will_ drop you."

"Are you kidding?" K laughed. "You kept me from having to heal more than I already do. Open up that face mask and I'll give you a kiss."

Tony paused in mid-flight to look down at her. "Okay. So she wasn't kidding about that."

"How many Avengers have you got running around distracting these idiots, anyhow?" K asked.

"Uh, no offense, but I'm not gonna give you numbers," Tony said.

"Alright, alright," she said. "But this has got to be the first reality where you're a killjoy."

"Woah, hey, let's get something straight," Tony said, straightening up a bit. "I am  _not_ — no. See. that's not how this works, sweetheart."

"Repressed." She narrowed her eyes and looked him — in the armor — up and down. "And sober too. How dare you be both?"

At that, Tony started to laugh. "Yeah, I'm starting to see how that other me could like you."

"Could? Nah, it's all just a game," she said. "If the girl-hawk said different, she's exaggerating." She looked down at herself. "So. Where can I find something better than a hospital gown?"

"I mean, I can take care of half the problem and lose the flimsy gown…"

"Wouldn't be the first time I kicked the crap out of people naked," she said dryly.

"So you're not shy… I can work with that."

"I am, however, married," she pointed out. "And I doubt that if I was single your circuits would hold up. So let's not play that little game."

"Hey, the way I understand it, your man's not here and is, in fact, in an entirely different world — so why not find a little pleasure and comfort in the meantime?"

"Yep," she said. "That's about right? But he's also taking care of our two very small kids. So let's not start something that ends in you dying in multiple realities." She shot him a winning grin. "That's not to say that I would stand in your way to go after the me that's  _supposed_ to be here."

Tony let out a chuckle that echoed in his armor. "You're more fun, though."

"As far as you know," she said. "At least she's single and unspoken for."

"Wow, are my standards that low where you're from? Just have to be single?"

"Mr. Stark," she laughed. "I was talking about a single version of  _me_. Are you trying to say that you weren't just hitting on a married woman? Because … well... I have bad news for you about where that falls on the standards."

Tony laughed even harder. "I just like to think I have high-caliber standards. Not just  _any_ woman without a ring."

"Oh, yes, absolutely," she agreed, nodding. "I can't speak for exactly where I stand on that scale or where the standards go, but I could tell you where I met you and you can draw your own conclusions." She looked up at him for a moment, biting her bottom lip before she simply started to pull herself up — climbing up the armor until she could hold on to him by herself and not rely on him to do all of it. "I was technically a secretary."

Tony was clearly grinning under his armor, even if she couldn't see it. "So far, nothing fishy. Except the 'technically' part. What, were you moonlighting?"

"Well …" She had to laugh. "Yeah. Maybe. And I wasn't working for you."

"Tell me I poached you," Tony chuckled.

"You tried," she said. "You tried so hard."

"And you loved it," Tony said, outright laughing now.

"I'm not the only one," she half-sang. "You were enjoying yourself too."

"What's that you say? No!" Tony said, doing his best to sound surprised and failing utterly as he flew with her — they were headed all the way back to the hideout.

"You're a terrible actor," she laughed. "But I wasn't trying to impress you. Not like your admirers. Not my job either."

"No, you were only telling me things I already knew," Tony agreed with an easy laugh. "But that's also something I'm used to."

"Actually, I really like  _not_  telling you anything useful. At all. Though … I wonder how cranky Cable would be if I gave you a few ideas to tinker with … you and I have made a few wonderful little weapons together."

"Hurry, quick, while his back is turned," Tony teased.

She laughed outright at that. "Like I have a good track record of listening to Summerses."

"Hey, who knows? This you has scruples. And a sense of humor, apparently," Tony pointed out. "Whole new territory."

"The other me was also heavily controlled. Give her a little space and some whiskey, and she'll come around. If you're real nice, I'll put in a good word for you when we have a little chat."

Tony shook his head at that, still clearly enjoying himself for the duration of the flight with K before they arrived back at the safe house and he set her down on the roof of the apartment complex in Bed Stuy. "So, we're the first ones back, but there should be another you and a mean redhead that will put you to sleep if you're just flirting with me to get what you want. Which, hey, I'm fine with, but you gotta pay up…"

"Mean, huh?" She raised an eyebrow at him as she did what she could to deal with the hospital attire. "So what is it you think that I want? And what is it I'm paying for?"

"I'm glad you asked," Tony said, the faceplate popping up to reveal his grin. "I've got the run of the top floor, and the master bedroom has a view of — well it's desolation right now, but we're not gonna be looking at the view anyway."

"That's not really answering my question," she pointed out. "That's just describing the setting."

"I know, I know. Words aren't enough. Come on, like I said, I'll show you," Tony said, settling his arm around her shoulders. "No one's back yet, we have time, and you  _did_ ask."

"That's what  _you'd_ like. I was specifically threatened with a mean redhead if I was just  _using_ you for what I wanted. So … what am I after, Mr. Stark?" She gestured to her head and closed her eyes for a second. "I was out of it for a while in there. You'll need to be specific."

Tony grinned, turned to face her fully, and let his hand drop to her lower back. "Well, the way I see it, you're either seducing me for my tech or for my looks. And I'm perfectly fine either way."

She gave him an honest grin. "If I wanted your tech, you and I both know I'd just take it." She shook her head. "Do you have any booze, or is this sober thing a permanent condition?"

"I hope not," Tony said. "I do, in fact, have wine in my place, thank you for asking. I know how to treat a lady."

"Tony, you're one in a billion, but I require whiskey." She shrugged. "Sorry."

"Ah, well, the only other option is Clint's cheap beer," Tony admitted. "This is a hideout, not the house I had in Malibu."

She covered his mouth with her hand. "Sweetheart, no. No one can drink Clint's awful beer. That just builds up bitching and washes down stale pizza."

Tony started laughing even harder at that. "Oh yeah. I'm telling him not even healers can stand the stuff. Best thing I've heard all year."

"It's really skunky rotten stuff," she agreed before she looked around the roof. "So … exit to the evil redhead, or do I need to scale down the building?"

"I guess we can go see the redhead, but my roundabout way was  _much_ more fun," Tony said.

"Oh, I'm sure," she agreed. "But like I said, I prefer you remain breathing."

"New world, new Tony — I'm probably sturdier than the one you got."

She tipped her head and simply couldn't pass it up. "More spry maybe, but … less experienced. I guess it'd be a trade off."

"I'd argue the experience, but this is a version of  _me_ …"

"I know. Put you in a box, didn't I?" she said before she darted forward and gave him a  _very_ quick peck. "Thanks for the lift."

He grinned. "Hey, I'm up to spring you anytime."

"You're a cheap date, Tony."

"Now that's just offensive and patently untrue," Tony said, shaking his head.

"And no way for you to disprove it," she sang out before she pulled on the door to head downstairs. "You have a key or am I supposed to break it?"

Tony shook his head again before he unlocked the door to the roof and led the way down to where Jean was looking far too amused and not even pretending she wasn't still chuckling over what she'd heard eavesdropping on the two of them.

"Hi, Red," K said. "I'm afraid I lost the horrible and very ugly uniform that Storm lent me. Do you have anything that doesn't smell like Clint here?"

"I'm sure we can find you something," Jean said, still in a tone ringing with laughter. "Unless Tony wants to lend you something."

"See?" Tony said, gesturing to Jean. "See?"

"I'm fine with that," she said, holding the smile back to keep the straight face. "Whatcha got for me?"

Jean kept grinning. "Nate says he's bringing you and your Kate back to your universe once he gets back," she said.  _So if you want to smell like someone in particular…_

"Right," K said, nodding.  _You and I both know that Logan would be a pain no matter what when I show up in someone else's threads_ , she projected back.  _Even if I went back smelling like the other Logan … there are slight differences. It's more the fact that no matter what, I'm going to go back in something that clearly isn't mine anyhow. But he'll know nothing happened, too, so I'm not concerned._

 _It wasn't concern; I just know how hard it is to fluster him and saw an opportunity,_ Jean said with a wicked smirk.

 _Then I am genuinely sad you and I didn't get to know each other. Flustering him is like breathing._ She took a moment to project out the first few meetings in the Danger Room — where Kurt was so overwhelmingly amused at the takedowns.  _It's a thing._

Jean couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling up aloud.  _I'm also sad that we never met. He seems so happy in your memories of him._

 _Well, I guess it wasn't in the cards,_  K projected before she turned to Tony. "Is that offer good, tall, Stark, and handsome? I need something that covers both front and back at the same time."

Tony grinned and offered her his arm. "How could I ever turn down a half-naked, beautiful woman asking to come to my room?"

"Head trauma?" she had to laugh. "That … could do it."

"That would be the only explanation, yes," Tony said. "Or I've been compromised — and that's how you know to send help."

"No, no," she said. "Compromised is supposed to happen  _after._ "

"Well like you said, I'm not as experienced. You'll have to show me," Tony said.

She stopped and gave him a falsely shocked look. "And I told you in my reality … I don't take remedial students."

"Reme-  _remedial_?" Tony scoffed. "Teasing aside — you can't throw  _slander_ around!"

"Just you and me," she said with a shrug as she took his arm. "I'm not advertising it. Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." She gestured to the door he'd stopped at. "You were …"

Tony smirked and then opened the door as widely as he threw an arm out. "Like I said, not much of a view right  _now,_  but considering we've knocked out most of their big guns, stick around a while and it will be again."

"Right," she said, nodding before she stepped in ahead of him. "Let's take things one step at a time. You said you had clothes you could bear to part with. I'm assuming of course, they're not the ones you're  _in._ "

"Well if you're going to take all the fun out of it..."

"Hey," she said, holding her arms out. "I didn't say I'd take the fun out or that I wouldn't accept it … but you might have to explain things to Kate when she shows up wondering why you're showing off your birthday suit."

"Hey,  _I_ have clothes.  _You_ do not."

"Please, help a girl out?" she said as sweetly as she could, even clasping her hands in front of herself and striking a little pose.

"Why of course," Tony said with a grin, leading her with a hand on her back to his closet. "You probably don't want the fitted shirts, but I think a nice button-up…"

"Perfect," she said. "Which one are you not attached to?"

"The purple one. Haven't touched it since the first 'Iron Hawk'."

"Oh … No. I can't … wait. Iron Hawk?" She turned to look at him and shook her head slowly. "No … no … I'm not putting purple on. They already thought Kate and I were an item. Sorry, but you're stuck with that one."

"Any reason they would think something like that?" Tony asked with an obnoxious grin.

"Um … they're idiots?" K suggested with an easy smile as she started to unbutton a much more subdued light blue shirt.

"I'm going to go ahead and think it was something else entirely."

"You do that," she said before she tossed the gown at his head and slipped on the shirt. "If it helps you."

Tony was grinning outright as she buttoned up and then gave him a raised eyebrow look and let her voice drop to a purr. "How about we talk  _weapons_ ideas before the Summers boys return and bust up the party?"

"Oh … that's just not … yes, talk weapons, please," Tony laughed, unable to stop the broad grin.


	10. Relief

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was headed back to the safe house, a little worse for the wear and worn out but in decidedly good moods now that they had laid waste to both of the biggest facilities under government control.

That universe's Kate was by far the most thrilled. Clint had been sure to have her stationed well away from the worst fight, but she was still running on a high of her first  _big_ fight — and had her arms around both Clint and Kurt as she regaled them with the shots she'd made and how "I can't believe you didn't let me do this before, Clint."

But for as good as the mood was around the group, they hadn't expected to find Jean holding her stomach, still laughing and wiping tears from the corners of her eyes — clearly more tickled than even Katie.

"Oh man," Kate said, cluing in and zipping around the trio of her other self and Kurt and Clint. "How long have Tony and K been here?"

"At the building or in the apartment?" Jean asked, wiping the tears away.

"Oh, that makes it even better," Kate laughed, and she had every intention of heading up — but just then, K finally made her appearance... wearing Tony's blue shirt. And Kate fell apart all over again as she took out her phone and was sure to snap a picture of K's new look.

"Oh, hi, sweetheart," K sang out. "The darndest thing happened while you were out."

And that had Jean falling apart laughing as well, holding onto Scott's shoulder and dying at the concentrated sort of 'what' expression on Logan's face — and the solid smirk Tony was wearing that kept growing as he followed her toward the group.

K made her way over to Kate and compulsively straightened out the shirt over her stomach and seemed to be checking what all was covered. "You sent the whole army after me."

Kate gave K her most innocent look before she threw her arms around her friend and nearly tackled her in a hug. "I panicked!" she said, half teasing and half sincere.

"Was that you or your baby sister — or was it the torture hubby that opened that lock?"

"Me," Kate said. "Clint stayed with his little sister. Which, by the way — actual big brother in this universe. Go figure."

"Oh, is that the story you're going with in this reality?" K asked, keeping her straight face. "That's the best they can come up with?"

Kate laughed and shook her head before she took a step back so that K could see the pure trouble in her gaze. "Okay, no, but K…  _she grew up with Clint in the circus_." She leaned forward. "She's been talking circus speak with Kurt  _since I introduced them_."

"Oh. My. God. Katherine. You're a corndog jockey here." She covered her heart with one hand. "Or did you run the tilt-a-whirl?"

Kate hit K in the shoulder. "Oh come on. I'm over here excited that this Kurt has a circus-Kate and you're making corndog jokes!"

"I can't help it! I don't know what kind of carnie you'd be best? I took a shot in the dark."

"Well, they're adorable. And they've been like, nonstop," Kate laughed.

"So precious," K agreed, nodding her head as she looked over at the younger Kate. "And I got to climb Tony for a lift here. Kinda want to scare the crap out of him in our time now."

"Yes, you do that, and I will go find  _my_ Kurt, because I miss him so much more now that this one's occupied," Kate teased.

"Oh, I don't mean right away," K said, shaking her head. "I need to find James first. And Logan. And Elin. Tony will have to take a number — after the engagement photos, of course."

"I hear that. I haven't seen Krissy in way too long," Kate said, bumping K's shoulder with hers before she looked to Cable. "Whatdya say? We've got both Ks, we're down one creepy brainwashing thing, and you even found the other me. Checked off the checklist, right?"

"Wait. I'm not done yet," K said as she turned toward Tony. "I want a word with her before I go. You can chaperone if you like, but I don't think anyone here is going to have the right touch with a traumatized  _me_."

"Why are you telling me?" Tony asked with a slightly confused expression, though it didn't last long when he heard her response.

"Senior Avenger around, right? That means you get to make the calls," she said before turning toward Clint. "Even if you are outnumbered by Hawks."

Clint rolled his eyes at that. "She's only stroking your ego because you need it, Stark."

"Just keep telling yourself that," Tony shot back.

Tony and Logan both went with K to speak with their world's K, who on seeing the three of them automatically recoiled. " _Jag kommer inte att skada dig. Och dessa snygga män skulle både vilja lära känna dig."_

K smirked even as her doppelganger looked more confused, though she relaxed when she saw that the men had no idea what was being said, she crossed the room to crouch down. Within a few moments — to the slight confusion of both Logan and Tony — the two Ks began to chat in a fairly quick-paced but still lilting Swedish.

It didn't take them long to pick up that ' _nej'_ was no or that the woman was still convinced that they were going to do something horrible to her. Her experience had simply been bouncing from one bad situation to a worse one, though from what she said, K relaxed and was sure to promise her that she was in good hands. " _Det är bra människor. Du kan lita på dem."_ She turned to face her chaperones. "Isn't that right, boys?"

Both Logan and Tony looked a little taken off-guard, but both of them shared a look and agreed, nodding at the women, which … for the first time... had their universe's K unable to hide an honest smile. "Now, I need to go home to my family," K told her. "Someone will be here soon to help you get cleaned up and into something more comfortable. Don't be stupid and run off. If I have to come back and find you, I will."

With an agreement in place, K stepped back out of the room with Logan and Tony. They barely got more than a handful of steps away from the closed door when she turned to face both of them. "I know you recorded it, so you can translate it yourself. But I only told her to behave and not do anything that will cause more trouble." It was clear both of them were still a bit confused — particularly by the smirk K was wearing. "I also told her that you both might be interested and that you're both good men." She leaned forward. "Good luck, boys."

She waited until she was with Scott and Nathan — and, of course, Tony and Logan — before she started telling them everything she  _could_ get out of their K. "More than anything, she's been through it. We have the same past all the way up until a few years ago when she became a real pain for you. In our world, I got out. She didn't. That's all. I have no doubt that she can be rehabbed in the right hands." She turned to face Cable and pointed a finger his way. "And -f you  _need_ us to come back, maybe just give me a heads up first?" K said. "I'm sure your Logan can figure out how to fix this K's head. But if it's a hassle …"

Nate held up his hands. "No, I think I've kept you long enough," he said.

"Oh, wait," Jean said, quickly straightening up before she rushed over from where she was hanging onto Scott to immediately wrap K in a hug. "You can't leave until I get a proper goodbye," she said without letting up on the hug.

At that, K wrapped her up tightly and gave her an honest squeeze. "You're going to be a wonderful mother," she whispered to her.

"Thank you," Jean whispered back. "I'm glad I got to meet you."

"You two do good work," K told her quietly, though not at a whisper, since that could be interpreted several ways.

Jean hugged her a bit tighter for a moment before she finally stepped back — which seemed to be the prompting for the rest of the group to say their goodbyes. Including an enthusiastic goodbye spinning hug from Tony for K and a warm sort of hug from Clint that had Kate on the edge of honestly getting emotional.

And K took just a moment to very quietly talk to Logan in a tone so soft that the only one that really caught it outside of Logan was Clint — and that was only because he was reading her lips. She gave him a few invaluable tips on how to reform the other K — cues that the others would be unable to detect anyhow.

But of course Kate couldn't leave without making sure to give that Kurt a warm hug and a crooked smile. "I think this one's  _so_ suited to you," she teased in a whisper that the other Kate couldn't hear. "But it was still fun to meet you this young."

"And I still say that you say the most amazing things," Kurt said with a smile.

Kate beamed and then kissed his cheek. "Be happy," she said before she gave him another squeeze and skipped off.

Cable was honestly just waiting for the two of them to finish up when K finally made her way over to him and simply leaned her head on his arm. "There are easier ways to get my attention, Sweet Time Skipper," she said quietly. "Letting me pack clothes is a great step in the direction of cooperation."

"I really thought this would be faster than it ended up being — and I  _am_ sorry about taking you from James," he said, sounding genuinely tweaked about it.

"You know how it works," she said easily. "If you think it will take all day, it never does. It's quick. But if you think it's quick, you better strap in for the long haul."

Nate chuckled at that as Kate caught up to the two of them as well. "Alright. Let's get you both back before anything else happens," he teased.

"Scaredy cat," K muttered as she took his arm, and once he had his portal opened up, it was just a matter of stepping through before they were home. K popped up to kiss his cheek and immediately headed for the door leading to the main part of the house. "How long do they think we were gone?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Only about an hour," he said.

K broke into a run, nodding to herself — simply because she wanted to get things rolling and to get James nursing so she could shower off and change into something that was hers. Not that she thought she'd get by Logan at  _all._

And as it turned out, the guys were together with the kids — Krissy and Elin were giggling and playing on the carpet as James was getting a little fussy for Logan, a sure sign that it was approaching time to nurse anyhow. K scooped him up and dropped into the seat next to Logan to simply get settled in with him even ahead of Kate — and completely ignoring the fact that she was still barefoot and in the blue button down shirt ... with precious little else.

"Don't look at me like that. Blame Cable," K said as Kate walked in — though both Logan and Kurt were frowning at K.

Kate nodded seriously as she dropped practically into Kurt's lap and gave him a long and involved kiss. "Oh, you are so much better than your younger self," she said.

"By a country mile," K deadpanned.

"What have you both been up to?" Kurt had to ask, shaking his head at the pair of them.

"That left you in Stark's shirt," Logan said with a frown.

"It was that or Clint's, and I found Stark less offensive to my nose," K said, scrunching her nose up for emphasis. "It was the wildest thing. They were living together." She looked over at Kate and did her best scandalized look. "Raising young Kate together."

"That is  _not_ what was happening. Don't tell stories," Kate said, shaking her head.

K couldn't help but laugh. "But it's a funny one," K laughed. "Come on. You can't wreck it when I tell Tony."

"Okay, that's different," Kate laughed. "But you're not feeding the Clint-raising-me line to anyone who might  _believe_ it."

"Oh. Just your Dad, Clint." She stopped and held up one hand. "No. Big brother. Sorry. My mistake."

Kate rolled her eyes at that before she turned back to Kurt. "Clint didn't even let me play with the big kids until I showed him the error of his ways.  _Seriously_. What kind of Hawkeye doesn't get behind the epic Hawkeyes teamup?"

Kurt shook his head at her. "Clearly, you've been in a dimension without the best joys in life," he had to tease her.

"We met some pretty miserable X-men," K told Logan as James settled in properly —  _finally._  "If you take a little sniff ... " She tipped her head to the side and swept her hair off her neck. "It was a small crew, but they were properly guilt-tripped by the time we left — and felt compelled to hug."

Logan leaned in and frowned at the scent mixtures he found. "Sure they weren't Skrulls or clones or something?" he asked. "Smells a little off."

"No. Just miserable," K said. "Took forever to get a decent response out of Tony — and Scott had even less of a sense of humor than he does here." She waited a moment and shifted James before she hit Logan hard in the center of his chest. "After I get cleaned up and rested? I'm kicking your ass."

"For?"

"Holding back in training," she said with a little growl.

Kate let out a laugh at that. "We go all the way to a dimension where you're all eviled up and  _that's_ what you take from it?"

"Hey. That is the only practical thing I could take from it," K defended. "But he's been holding back. I'm not having it."

Kate laughed and leaned back into Kurt. "Go get 'im."

"Is that why you smell like you kissed Stark?" Logan had to ask.

"Small kiss. Purely American. And it was for a flight that got me out of trouble. Believe me, he had a lot of flack to take for it anyhow," K said with a wave.

"She also kissed the other you," Kate called out. "And it wasn't small or American."

"That's fine," Logan said, leaning back with his arm around her shoulders. "As long as that's all it was."

"It was. But  _she_ was stringing young Kurt along. Like the  _predator_ she is," K laughed.

"I was — it wasn't on  _purpose_ ," Kate spluttered.

"Cougar."

"I was just being  _me_ and then he  _kissed me_!" Kate said, throwing her hands up.

"Rawr," K growled out.

Kate rolled her eyes at K before she turned to Kurt. "Really, though, I  _am_ sorry about that part. I did not ask to get kissed. I was just… I was just …"

Kurt smiled lightly and pulled her into a gentle kiss. "I believe this only proves there is no universe in which I don't love you."

"Oh, well, okay, I like that," Kate said without moving from Kurt, smiling against his mouth before she kissed him again.

"And my kiss to Logan was  _tactical_. He hated me and needed to shut up," K said. "Nothing sweet and starry-eyed about it."

Kate finally turned away from Kurt and nodded. "Yeah, that was no good. K was being controlled, no one trusted her... it was a mess."

"I certainly hope you remedied  _that_ nonsense," Kurt huffed.

"Did what we could," K said. "You didn't like me either. Further proof the two of you share a brain."

"Jean  _loved_ her though," Kate put in. "As soon as I showed her the happy Howlett family, she was  _on board_."

"That doesn't surprise me at all," Logan said. "Just a shame she wasn't around to know you two."

Kate nodded. "I liked her," she agreed.

"And I have no doubt that she felt the same," Kurt said, nestling his chin into the curve of Kate's neck.

"Well I know you boys didn't really know we were gone to miss us, but I'm beat," K said. "So … I'm going to take the little ones … and the big one … and I'm going to bed. You two … let me know when you're ready for that photo shoot. I'm going to wear this shirt."

Kate just laughed at that, curling into Kurt. "I'm going to kidnap mine too. You won't argue, will you, Kurt?" she teased, which only got an impish grin out of Kurt before he pulled her into a long kiss.

K gave her a little smile as she and Logan started toward the door. "Take your time. We'll be upstairs if you find you need a sitter."

"I'm sure we'll let you know," Kurt said before he tipped his head toward Krissy, and one of the bamfs made sure to take her up with them while Kurt was still wrapped up with Kate in a kiss.

From Swedish:

 _Jag kommer inte att skada dig. Och dessa snygga män skulle både vilja lära känna dig. -_ I won't hurt you. And these handsome men would both like to get to know you.

 _Det är bra människor. Du kan lita på dem. -_ They're good people. You can trust them.


End file.
